IMPACT

Have you ever had moments where someone says something so ordinary but at that instant, it hits you with so much momentum that you almost recoil from the impact?

The other day i was travelling back in the cab from office when i overheard this conversation between two people sitting behind me. One of them said to the other:
"The people you like do not reciprocate and the ones who like you are not encouraged."-->(For future reference.. lets call this Theorem #1)

Now thats a very ordinary sentence.. nothing new at all.. but at that moment i remembered that scene from one of the episodes of Friends where Rachel is going to Paris to work for Louis Vuitton. And Gunther comes up to her in the coffee shop and said that he loved her. And she said:"Oh Gunther!! I love you too.. probably not in the same way"I laughed like carzy when i saw it..This is the perfect example for Theorem #1.

I had already seen this scene in that episode.. but only when the people behind me said what they said.. it hit me that the episode i found so funny is actually an offspring of something very deep rooted and omnipresent.

Now, i'm not emotionally a very deep person..but i do observe.. and analyse.. process what i know and leave it somewhere in my head for future reference. If people i know act funny, i do not question them "why?" .. but i do observe it .. analyse what could probably cause it and let it go.. assuming that the funny acts will stop.. that they will come around with time..

Typically, people like me would do the following two things:
The ones who dont reciprocate: To hell with you
The ones who do like you: are taken for granted

Of late, i realised that both are bad moves and Lord alone knows how much trouble i have gotten into with some really good friends of mine for being so dense. As you grow older, you realise how childish you have been all these years and your perspective changes. So now i say the following:
The ones who dont reciprocate: I hope u go to heaven..no actually..i still think "to hell with you".. i guess i have not grown up enough;) he he
The ones who do like you: i'm sorry if i take you for granted and i'll be good in the future:D

Just for the record: Simply because you dont show what you feel does not mean that you DON'T feel!!!

Theatre.. Reality in your Face

Yesterday, i saw another brilliant play by Evam.. ART..a serious comedy... allow me to rewind in time a little bit and go back to basics..

Evam is a well established theatre group from Chennai who do plays mostly in Chennai.. lately they have been trying their luck in Bangalore and have been very successful at it.I got hooked on to plays and theatre thanks to them. My first play was called "Barefoot in the Park" by Evam.

I was so mesmerised by the fact that theatre could be so real.. well it is real.. but what i'm trying to say is that it felt like the story was real and unfolding right in front of your eyes.. All sense of everything around you will fade away and all thats left are the characters and the story..i used to believe that theatre can never be as entertaining as a movie because all they have is props to take the audience into the lives of the characters... but i was wrong.. they have more.. they have sheer raw talent and an appreciative live audience and instant accolades.. no effects.. no technology.. nothing.. all they need is the spontaneous applause.. the cheer.. the sighs..the wrapt attention of the audience right there in front of them.. it is such an adrenalin rush.. they can take u back in time.. into the future.. to paris.. or timbaktoo!!! with absolutely nothing but make believe.. just that. In my opinion, it is the most beautiful form of live art.. the actor can be anything he wants.

A play is a lot harder to pull off because the crowd is right there in front you and there are no retakes.. one mistake will stand out like a large zit on your nose.. everything is about perfect dialogue delivery and even more perfect timing. I believe that theatre artists are by far more talented than the movie stars .. for obvious reasons. The most obvious reason being that the theatre artists get live feedback about their performance every instant and thats a lot of pressure to cope with.. especially when they are not doing so well.

Thats why I LOVE THEATRE..

Back to the present.. ART was about the complicated friendship of three guys who had nothing in common except their tendencies to get into frequent arguments with each other over a white peice of canvas masquerading as a painting. Not one sentence spoken by the three characters was funny to them but the audience was rolling in laughter..Each line in the script was intended to be the words and thoughts of the characters in absolute seriousness.. u have to watch the play and understand why everyone laughed so hard.. all because of the circumstances and the timing.. thats the beauty of this "serious comedy".

I have higher hopes out of the play that they are going to peform this friday onwards..Its called Double Comedy- Hysteria..This one is going to be a complete laugh riot.. one of my favourite actors is going to be acting in this play.. Karthik senior.. who is a fantastic comedian and one of the most brilliant actors i have ever seen.. not to be confused with Karthik Kumar (Junior, who i think is extermely charming ;D because of that oh-so-disarming-smile).

All those who have not given theatre a fair chance should definitely come and check them out this weekend at Rangashankara. Then they can decide whether they were right or wrong about it. I bet you will love it and get hooked to it like i did:))

City Of Angels.. Yeah Right!!! Get Real

I'm scared of dogs.. terrified of them. Because i dont know what they are thinking.. so i'm always imagining that they might just come and bite me or chase me any minute if they want to. I am so scared of them that i dont go for a jog in the morning because there are too many street dogs in this city.

I'm scared of humans..terrified of them. Because i dont know what they are thinking.. so i'm always imagining that they might just come and mug me or hurt me any minute if they want to. I am so scared of them that i dont go for a jog in the morning because there are too many weird people on the street in this city.

What has become of this place? I have to catch a train to go home at 4:15pm today. And i was just informed that i have to be at the station an hour earlier because of security checks... security checks!!!At a Railway Station!!!
I can no longer trust the person standing next to me coz he just may be carrying a knife or a gun or a bomb. FOR WHAT JOY IS HE CARRYING THAT???
What great laurels are they going to accomplish by killing people.. even worse.. killing children??

I wish an alien race would just come and wipe out earth because i dont think we deserve to live anymore if we are no better than those dogs on the street.. in fact we are worse than the dogs on the street

Highway Rhapsodies

Many people have asked me why I named my blog "Highway Rhapsodies"..So here is the story behind it.. When i was little, an old man once told me the following analogy for life:

He said that all throughout childhood and adoloscence,life is like driving in the small town lanes.. You cant wait to get out and enter the fast lane.. As children we are all eager to grow up and live life like all the adults around us do..with freedom.

When we reach our twenties, that is when we reach the "Highway" of our life.. the actual fast lane. He said that if you are responsible and in control of your life, you will go a long way.. but if you dont .. you will simply crash and burn.

Rhapsodies are songs of joy...literature that mainly comprises of tales of freedom and exaltation.

Highway Rhapsodies represent my journey on the Highway of my life along with all thats good and bad during the course. Every incident ..however small or big..good or bad teaches you something about life..making you that much more wiser.. stronger.. that much more closer to a state of complete freedom and exltation

So whether i go a long way or crash and burn.. it will all be right here in this journal:)) All this was explained to me in my mother tongue.. malayalam. I dont know if my translation expalined it half as well he did.

That wise old man was my grandfather

Corporate Fastrack

All my life i have had the "Hum Kisse Se Kum Nahin" attitude. Thats mainly because all my life i have lived with my parents and parents always think that their children are the best. But now that i'm living on my own and getting aquainted with so many people from varied backgrounds and industries, i realise that the "frog in the well" perspective that i have had for so many years is bullshit.. pardon my french:))

You see all of these 20 something people around you with their super cool jobs .. sports editor, entertainment, marketing guru's, theatre artists, business prodigies.. the list goes on. These guys have adrenalin pumping through them at warp speed and their zest for life makes people around them want to get up and fight.. fight for their share of glory and success.

I know a person who joined her organization at the age of 20 for a starting salary of Rs.3000/- pm.. So bad were her state of affairs during the beginning years that she had to ask her dad to send money every month to make ends meet..Now that i am working,asking my dad for money is a ridiculous concept.. And if i were in her place, i would not have taken up the job in the first place. But this amazing lady not only took it up but stuck to it for 4 years..

Talent as we all know cannot go unnoticed for very long. Soon she climbed up the ladder so fast that now she is on the verge of being the business head for operations in Dubai. Now this is a post that is normally given to people who have atleast put in 10 years of committed work with the organization. Now thats "Corporate Fastrack".

"I will only do what i love doing" --That was probably what ran through her head when she took up the job. And when you love what you do, its not very difficult to out perform everyone else or atleast yourself in each new project. The Corporate ladder starts looking like the school yard ladder.. in short.. cake walk. But the key aspect here is to love what you do.

Now the whole objective of narrating this was to retrospect. Given a chance to swap places with the person mentioned above..

Would i have made the same decisions as her?
Would i have had the resilience and patience that she had?
Have i made a compromise with my profession just because it was the first thing that came my way easily?

Very few people have the guts to say no to "fat paycheck jobs" over something that they are "passionate" about doing.

In my view, the reason why most people agreed for their current jobs is because they do not know what they want out of life. Atleast, thats why i'm in my industry.

What sets the sprinters apart from the joggers is that the sprinters have their goal in sight while the joggers follow routine with no particular aim in sight.

What sets apart the "winners" from the "doing pretty well for themselves" is that the winners sprint to get what they love and the "doing pretty well for themselves" jog around routine with no particular long term objective.

So the Big Question now is:

What do the majority of the "20 something" population( people like me) really want from life?
And when will that moment of clarity occur?

My first Blog

For a person who usually has loads to say at any given point in time.. it sure feels weird when i have to put my words on paper.. lets how it goes