A SIMPLE FORMULA

"karmanye vadhika raste
ma phaleshu kadachana
ma karma phala hetu bhurba
te sangostav karmani" (Chap 2: 47)

This very popular & famous verse from the Bhagavad Gita sums up the formula for success. It has been quoted over & over again & I found the relevance of it today too when the nation is celebrating the Oscar success.


News channels haven't stopped raving about AR Rahman & his feat. The common refrain in all his interviews & people who talk about him are his simplicity & spirituality. When you look at the kids from the cast of Slumdog millionaire all that strikes you is they got what they had not even imagined in their wildest dreams. Danny Boyle in one of his interviews said that that the project just started & he completed with total passion enjoying every bit of it & then it took its own journey. Each one is euphoric. They truly should be. Every one who enters the film industry dreams of holding the Oscars at some point in their career. Getting recognition is easiest at the Oscars. The world watches it & it is acknowledged everywhere. Instant fame is the outcome.

Looking at those kids on the red carpet what struck me was, they were destined to be there so early. One of the kids' mother even said that it felt so good to see her son go & win an award which even Amitabh & Shah Rukh have not won! It's so surreal. You don't know what you are doing many a time & just get into a project. YOU are the chosen one . You go on do your best & then its appreciated beyond your expectations. Isn't it strange? Sometimes there is someone around you who is as good as you but that person gets more recognition than you do.Many a time that someone may not even be as good as you & then it hurts even more. Who decides this?

Well many times we have no answers. What is ironical is the sometimes the award doesn't necessarily go to the best. It is the situations that fall so beautifully in place that there is no earthly force who can take what you have in store! No lobbying or no bribing. It's the sheer beauty of how "that force" conspires to make sure that you get what you are due to. No power can stop that.

Each time an honor comes a person's way, the higher they go, the humbler they become. Gulzaar saab's reaction was a perfect example. A great lyricist & director he needed a JAI HO to give him an Oscar. He gave "Rahman saab" full credit. AR Rahman even at that point of "being terrified & excited" acknowledged his mother & said the most humbling statement "Ella pughalum Iraivannuke." Success is so transitory so is the glory that comes along. Having tasted it many times over it must have not been different for the Musical genius.

Honestly I am not an idealist. Being rational has helped me face life a lot better. But then everything that happens in our life need not have a logical explanation. Many a time it is this surprise element that makes life so worth living.To be able to totally surrender makes life's attitude so important.These are what i picked up listening to Rahman in different interviews

• Do whatever you do with total passion & commitment.
• Acknowledge an unseen power which each of us gives a different name to
• Remember you are accountable to the talents you have, so stay grounded.

This is exactly what the 47th verse in the second chapter of the Gita says too. Every truly successful person seems to have followed it always. So has the genius AR Rahman.The results are there for us to see!

Isn't this a simple formula?

YOUR CURVE!

The title of this post could be misleading but surely is bringing in what we need the most today, your curve!

Life around us gives us reasons to be happy. We just don't see them. Sometimes a great work of art can make you happy. It could be a painting, a poem, a story... just about anything that gives you a sense of complete satisfaction. A beautiful film is also one where the director as a story teller is successful at keeping our interest alive all through. A creation that makes you smile because it is mind blowing! Sometimes just because it is simple.There are a few films which fall in this genre. Two films I saw recently made me think they rightfully belong here. They made me cry & wonder how ironical life can be and happy at how simple they were!


Brilliant ! is how I would love to describe the first film. This was a movie I had not heard of & when my brother brought the DVD from the video store, I was curious. "It had great reviews & so I picked it up" said my brother. To me, except for Naseeruddin Shah and Koel Purie who were actors I knew, I didn't expect much. I sat to watch & when the final credits rolled tears welled up in my eyes & I wondered where do films like this vanish? Why don't they advertise such films?


"Amal" is a must watch film. Rupinder Nagra plays the role of Amal to the T! Adapted from a short story Amal - The Autorickshaw Wallah, written by Shaun Mehta , the movie is directed by his brother Richie Mehta with screenplay by both brothers. A low budget film, it won the San Francisco International Asian American Film festival Jury Award for best narrative in 2008 & the Whistler Film Festival's Philip Borsos Award for best actor to Rupinder Nagra. It also won the audience award & many others which it deserved. A typical O'Henry feel to the story, your heart goes out to the protagonist who is such a beautiful soul!


Another film, which I thought was a well told story was "Parzania- Heaven & Hell on Earth". An award winning film it kept me glued & at the same time set me thinking. It had an impressive cast of Naseeruddin Shah & Sarika -both perfect foils to each other. It could be described as depressing but then ended with hope. A beautiful sentence in the film was , the narrator saying "It is for the first time I realized that when religion can be the problem, it can also be the solution" When I read that it was based on a true story, it made me wonder what went through the people who were part of it in real life. What an experience it must have been. A bitter truth we cannot escape from. Fundamentalists , who decide who lives & who dies! How dare they!

Many a time, important questions get bogged down when wrong deeds get more highlighted. When we focus on the wrong we are giving the right less attention. Shouldn't it be the other way round? The law of attraction talks about vibrations that we attract. When we are constantly surrounded & fed with the wrong, we are attracting negativity into our lives & thus we are making the wrong choice. Maybe our focus should now be on that which is right. People around us are worried that life is not positive. There is a fear everywhere coupled with uncertainty. Very few talk about Hope because all they see around them is despair. Very few talk about Happiness because all they see around them sorrow.

It is in times like these that a victory is more relished or a story with hope better appreciated.

Gandhi said" Be the change you want to see". So let's spread this positivity.

Maybe we can start on an individual level with our curve. A curve which relaxes the one using it & the one it is used for.

We use it on many occasions, when we are happy, sarcastic, delighted ,to hide we are upset or when ironic.

Something which makes every individual using it beautiful.

Flash it first thing in the morning at yourself & then at the world.

Never leave home without it. Make sure you have one to pass it on.

Ironically it is free but rarely used.

It is that small little curve that straightens many things in your life
" YOUR SMILE!"

DO YOU?

The other day I was watching SRK in an interview & when asked of the characters he's played including the recent Suri ji, which is closest to the real him...he said "None. In fact I'm so uncomfortable with myself that i love playing other characters." He continued saying that maybe that's why he loves acting because he has different people to enact & is less of himself then. Well that set the question in me...."Are we comfortable the way we are? Is it a common problem?"

Many actors, if you notice carefully, are so conscious in their interviews that you wonder if they are comfortable in their own element. They are constantly playing so many different characters that though they seem so confident playing those roles , when it comes to basic self acceptance , they have a problem. Do we also have it? I wanted to find out.

How many of us are happy the way we are? The answers were... Maybe a slightly sharper nose would have made a difference or slightly taller built. No.. no.. may be slightly bigger eyes or a smaller mouth. Just maybe a nicer set of teeth , a few packs in the abs, a small dimple, smoother skin, longer or better hair, a few more years of 'natural' black hair, a better figure, a nice voice, better skin or a rounder face. The list seemed endless. It is that most of us are not happy with the way we are. Given a choice we would love to have a 'slight' change. The degree of this "slightness" is all that makes the difference. Is it all that important?

Shouldn't we be comfortable or satisfied the way we are? Isn't that a prerequisite to keep us happy? Are physical external looks so important? If the inner you is satisfied it reflects on the outside world too. Maybe that's why the best smiles come from babies. After a good feed & having burped, a sleeping baby is the perfect picture of complete satisfaction. We are born with an ability to be satisfied with the basics . It is when our needs increase that the smiles vanish too. It's not very difficult to get those smiles back. It's just that we need to prioritize our lives well. Once we do that & start counting our blessings maybe we will be a happier lot. I strongly think so.
Do you?