kinshuk sunilit aint no, dessert if therez no caek

I continue my experiences from my previous post where I described my journey till the point where I was on-board the aircraft. Now, I shall try to pen down my thoughts through my maiden flight. I am sorry, this might turn out more like a philosophical rant.

While I was sitting in the craft, waiting for it to taxi and take off, I was very anxious. Here I was, travelling alone for the first time, unsure of how things will turn out. I had just some cash on me and a mobile phone to help me out. Just in case. I was nervous. Yadu was sick and so he wasn’t going to be around, local help was also limited. I had been warned about likely language and traffic troubles in Bangalore. I was afraid it might be a hostile city, after all, for a newbie like me. There were so many things that could go wrong in Bangalore.

Captain Hardings updated us on the status of the flight. We are on ground hold for engine start and taxi for another 20 minutes. Sorry for the delay. I whiled my time away looking at the distant airport and the nearby crafts. Soon, the plane started to taxi and the crew asked us to put on the seat belts, keep the seat straight, and brace ourselves for take off. Off all the people I could see, I was the only one following the instructions verbatim.

The plane, now, approached the runway but took a halt. A jeep was flying down the runway. It stopped a few hundred metres away. A guy stepped out and fired a green flare into the sky. Soon an international service by Air India took off. We were next. We taxied onto the runway and stopped again. The engines suddenly roared to life, the plane started running and a few moments later the nose was up, then the craft, and we had taken off.

Suddenly, blood rushed into my head; my ears went all red and hot and I couldn’t hear a thing. Three seconds and a gulp after everything was normal. I was flying and with it came a surge of confidence. All my anxiousness and nervousness was gone. Bangalore, I am on my way and you better be ready for me baby! That was what I felt – pure exhilaration and curiosity. Now before you go “Gross!” let me tell you that this was the first time I was above 20ft of land. My eyes were stuck to the window, now, taking in all possible details. I was trying to identify places and landmarks and everything else I could see down below.

And then I realised, at the speed I am travelling, I am already far past Delhi. I wished they built huge name-boards for all cities, villages, and every-possible-where so that air travellers could identify places. But alas! no help there.

Beauty, they, say is skin deep. You know, like beauty is what you see. Incorrect. Beauty is a lot more than that; lot more than what you see. Beauty is, always, felt. Its the emotion that fills you up when you see anything beautiful; the glow that you glow with. That’s beauty. I had seen many pictures and footages of aerial views but that can never equal first-hand experience.

Its a sense of grandeur that you feel – a grand scheme you are just a minuscule part of. It is, in a way, a belittling experience, sort of, simply transforms you into a small fleck of life compared to the totality. The Whole Picture. It is also a Whoasome!® experience. :P

This is my maiden journey alone; my first flight experience, and I wish I could share the sight with my family and some dear friends. I am feeling lonely like I have never felt. I have never been this lonesome, in other words. Perhaps I shall feel more lonesome at Bengaluru. Whatever.

At 3pm, I run into bad weather. Gawd! First Flight and bad weather already? I am flying over somewhere around Hyderabad. I should be. Its kinda all white outside the window. The plane is shaking slightly. Feels like its being played with by high winds. I am taking a lot of pictures with my mobile phone. I hope they turn up good.

Amidst these thought of grandeur and loneliness, and bad weather of course, taking in the beautiful sights of flying over clouds – I have approached Bengaluru. In the meanwhile, I had something to eat on-board; the prices were overkill. Hell! They got a monopoly here. Its like Leave it or Take It.

Landing was smooth; we were actually flying over the runway seconds before landing and I thought we had landed already (pretty smooth huh?) but then came the thuds and the shakes and the rumble and we had finally landed. Bengaluru International Airport. 4:20 PM IST. The temperature outside is 28.6 degree celsius. Have a pleasant day. Thank you, captain Hardings.

To be continued.

Two Years. Seven Hundred and Thirty One days. Seventeen Thousand Five Hundred and Twenty Hours. Over. The End.

I, today, stand at that juncture in one’s life whence one phase ends and a new one begins. Ancient Indian System divides the life of any individual into four phases: Brahmacharya (Student phase; implies Discipline), Grihasthashrama (living in the material world), Vanprastha (Retired from responsibilities) and Sanyasa (renunciation), each lasting a period of twenty five years. A students life ought to be that of self-discipline and a guided effort towards learning – Brahmacharya. It is this phase that I cross now and enter into the material world. Soon, I’d start working. Life will be so different then.

But, before I start running the rat race I want to take a pause. Stop and pen down my thoughts here. So that when I grow older, I can always return here and remind myself how I used to be as a student. More particularly the two years that were GBO.
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A Very Warm and Sweet Valentine’s Day to you. I hope you enjoyed the day with your loved ones (read: the loved one). But wait a second… What exactly is love? This is what Wikipedia has to say:

The word love has many different meanings in English, from something that gives a little pleasure (“I loved that meal”) to something one would die for (ideals, family). It can describe an intense feeling of affection, an emotion or an emotional state. In ordinary use, it usually refers to interpersonal love. Probably due to its psychological relevance, love is one of the most common themes in art and music.

Just as there are many types of lovers, there are many kinds of love. Though love is inherent in all human cultures, cultural differences make any universal definition difficult to establish.[1] One definition attempting to be universally applicable is Thomas Jay Oord’s: to love is to act intentionally, in sympathetic response to others, to promote overall well-being. This definition applies to the positive connotations of love.

Expressions of love may include the love for a “soul” or mind, the love of laws and organizations, love for a body, love for nature, love of food, love of money, love for learning, love of power, love of fame, love for the respect of others, etcetera. Different people place varying degrees of importance on the kinds of love they receive. According to many philosophers, the only goal of life is to be happy. And there is only one happiness in life: to love and be loved. Love is essentially an abstract concept, much easier to experience than to explain.

Read More.

Easier to experience than explain. Oh! Point taken.

So, How did you experience love? In English, Love has many forms and meanings… same is here… love for your family, kinship, the special one, nation, culture, your favourite superstar (??), err.. well… back to the point:

What is Love to you? How Did You Experience Love?
And yes: What Would You Do For The Ones You Love?

PS: Read this excellent post on first loves… [First] Love’s Labours Lost

Note: Please don’t take notice of my grammatical errors

I believe, Art is not just a form of entertainment. That is a misconception. Art is a tool to inspire and encourage individuals, and has been doing so evidently for centuries. Movie-making is an art too, and I do not refer to the documentaries or artistic movies. No! even Commercial Movies are an art piece in themselves. And nothing would be a better example of such art than Aamir Khan’s directorial debut – Taare Zameen Par: Every Child is Special… For readers who do not understand Hindi, Taare Zameen Par would roughly translate as: Angels on Earth.

That being said – Taare Zameen Par (TZP, now on… for typing ease) is an art piece, commercial art from Bollywood. I will roughly talk about the story first and then about the art. If you avoid spoilers, kindly skip the following paragraph, even though I do not disclose much.

TZP is the story of a dyslexic child Ishan Awasthi. How nobody realises that he is dyslexic and is thus performing poorly in academics and in life in general. Even though blessed with above-average intellect and a great painter for his age, he is regularly penalised at school for not completing assignments, flunking in tests, bunking school, etc. His parents and teachers believe that what Ishan lacks is discipline and thus he is sent to a boarding school, where in a stricter and harsher environment, and with the ignominy of separation from his family the creative boy becomes sorrowful and unhappy. Bursts on the scene a new Arts Teacher – Ram Nikumbh, who being associated with the Tulip School has a far better understanding of Ishan’s situation and has experience of helping dyslexic and retarded children. Powered by his compassion for the child, Nikumbh makes effort to recover Ishan from all the damage done to him and replenish his self-confidence. He succeeds obviously.

TPZ is a wonderful movie. The Acting is wonderful, Music is Excellent, Technical details have been taken well care of. The movie inspires you, makes you aware of the world most of us have to face due to the ever-running race of performance where only those activities are encouraged that have viable commercial future. It is a movie that, at least, every parent should see.

Story-wise, TPZ uses what I call the Disney Device to full effect. If you have seen the Disney Animation Movies, they had a pattern – the protagonist was orphan/separated from his family and initially faced hardships in life. Midway, due to the intrinsic values of the protagonist something good will happen to them that would change the whole course of their life: be it finding a magic lamp, or meeting your son from the future. In the meanwhile, Exaggerate the Negatives so much that the positive gets highlighted without any efforts and is valued as something very rare and special.

What separates TPZ from other movies is not its Story, Acting or Music etc. These are wonderful and of top-notch quality no doubt. But what really makes the movie into the experience it is are two things: Direction and Effective use of Special Effects.

Débutante director Aamir Khan has done an exceptional job. I have been a big fan of his since QSQT but this is not my bias showing. Perfectionist, as he is, Aamir Khan has really woven the movie in a manner where every one can associate himself with Ishan and feel his pain. This connect between the characters and the audience is very well drawn.

It is also one of those Bollywood movies that understands what Special Effects are and can achieve. There has been a trend in Bollywood, to use special effects only to prove that you can afford them or that the audience are always awed by special effects. But very few movies understand the reach and story-telling-effectiveness of special effects. The Special Effects in TPZ are a great tool to see into the person of Ishan, his world, his perspective. And thus, they act as a great directorial tool and constructs the aforementioned character-audience connection. Be it the Title Claymation that really sets the tone for the movie or the intermediate animations showing Ishan’s perspective or the final animation that shows how Ishan manipulates colors into a master-piece provide great insights into the character.

Being a Bollywood movie, TPZ is high on emotions… that’s what sells a movie in India, anyway. So take with you a tissue-box when you go watch this movie and even though the mother-son relationship is not a very big part of the story, yet the movie would make you nourish your relationship with your mother, esp the song “Maa“, which I have been listening to the past 3 hours (yes, I am a bit cranky). But go watch the movie!

And with this note, I wrap up this review-cum-rant. I have almost said nothing about the movie and yet in a way spoke something. But there was only one thing I wanted to say: Go watch the movie in the nearest theatre as soon as possible and don’t judge it by the flaws inherent to a Bollywood movie. Judge it by its message.

God Bless. Peace.

Please Note: This is straight from an internal email communiqué… pending for edits and censorship… Apply Consideration…

[...]

What was a very exciting match (though turned, sorta, one sided midway the second innings) Team GBO showed a dedicated and professional behaviour on field. Let me capture the moments for the people who missed the match.

After the toss, Team GBO’s captain Sir Shree Lalit Gupta chose to bat first. The right tone for the whole match was set by the GBO openers – Lalit Gupta and Karan Sharma, who played a brilliant knock and built a strong opening partnership of about 124 runs in 13 overs. Lalit was the first wicket to fall with an individual score of 49 (rather unfortunate to miss out a half century) including 2 sixes and about 7-8 boundaries. The opening partnership was filled with a barrage of boundaries and sixes by both Lalit and Karan who were joyfully hugged by our dear Gupta ji after every shot (somehow the security guards were amiss ).

The next to follow was Karan Sharma who hit a brilliant knock of 70 runs (1×6s, abt 11×4s). With only three overs to go the following batsmen went for pinch hitting with Varun Paaji, Nitin ji, Gupta ji and our best bowler Sandeep.

With a total of 154 in 16 overs, Team GBO set a formidable score for their opponents. The target was high but not unattainable.

With the beginning of the second innings, two of the opposition’s good batsmen came to bat one of which was a famous Kushal, famous for hitting centuries in such inter/intra – college matches. The first over by Sandeep (famous as GBO’s Goli Bowler throughout SRCC, for his fast paced, tight bowling) conceded only 4 runs and brought the opposition to the reality of what Team GBO really is. The next over by our dearest Negi Sir destroyed the very foundations of our opponents by his tight bowling. The famous Kushal was caught out by Sandeep on one of Negi ji’s beautiful delivery for a lowly single digit score. Sandeep continued to pound the opposition batsmen with the bowling he is famous for. It was Negi ji who struck again, bowling out the next batsmen, again on a single digit score. Fear was only one emotion the opposition felt.

The new batsmen Karthik was again a famed SRCC cricket player, who held the reins of the opposition batting. Together for the third wicket they scored a parternship of about 50 runs and the total score was about 80 when our Gupta ji struck with vengeance and our dear Doga Paaji (aka Varun) caught a splendid catch on the mid-wicket with sharp reflexes. In between we saw some really nice fielding from our youthful and agile Negiji and Raghu.. (Come on, Raghu! )..

After that the opposition innings crumpled. The next batsmen was run out by Lalit through a timely pass by Karan Gupta in an Abhish Negi over. All in all the opposition needed to score 54 runs from 3 overs to win all due to some dedicated bowling by Sandeep, Abhish, Karan Sharma, Gupta, Manish and Nitin. Then our Nitin bhai and Doga Paaji bowled two good overs and the opposition needed to score another 38 overs from a single over. Already having won the match the over was shared by two budding , talented bowlers – Monish Paaji and Myself. After scoring a boundary of my ball, the match ended on cue with Team GBO registering a thrilling win over their rivals with them falling short by 34 runs.

What followed was a scene of euphoric celebration where Team GBO huddled and bounced, pranced around, screamed and yelled, showered Coca Cola (desi champagne ) on each other.

All Hail The Champs!

[...]

The Winning Team:

(from left-to-right, back-to-front)

Karan Gupta (White Overalls), Lalit Gupta, Varun Jaisia (Black Jersey), Sandeep Kharab,

Kinshuk Sunil (Myself with Stump in hand), Nitin Gautam (White/Blue T Shirt), Raghunandan Saraf (Orange Tee), Abhish Negi (Green Tee), Manish Kumar (White Overalls),

Mohnish (Sprawled), Karan Sharma (Team India Tee)