Apr 24, 2012

Men &Trees

There is a great affinity between trees and men. We grow at much the same pace, if we are not hurt or starved or cut down. In our youth we are respledent creatures, and in our declining years we stoop a little, we remember, we stretch our brittle limbs inthe sun, and then, with a sigh, we shed our last leaves...

- taken from The Kitemaker
(Friends in Small places by Ruskin Bond)

Apr 22, 2012

Inspiration Part III


For most of the people he's King Khan, some call him the Badshah of Bollywood...Some view him as the epitome of over-acting, while others see him as a tyrant and arrogant SoB... No matter what your opinion of him is...you will have an opinion about him. Whether you call him an opportunist or copycat of Dilip Kumar... you can't deny that Shah Rukh Khan is a success, hands down.

This Delhi born and raised Pathan, who holds degree in Economics; has shown to world that someone with absolutely no links to film industry CAN make it big. His life has been in spotlight ever since he started. First for his said resemblance to Dilip Kumar; (this was while he was doing Fauji on television)... then his choice of controversial negative roles in Darr and Baazigar... People have always been on rampage about him and his choices.... be it his unorthodox explicit love scenes in Maya Memsaab; or the fact that he danced at weddings; or even the fact that he consistently is nominated and has bagged more Filmfare awards than any of his comrades and/or seniors. Even his marriage to a Hindu girl was once shadowed by doubt and criticism. He simply goes ahead and proves that "tongues wag when you do good work".

Its more than 2 decades now that he's been acting...and he shows no signs of slowing down. People might criticise him for his botox-ed face and weaved hairs... the man "still" has got enough charisma that his films hardly ever FLOPS. But its not his films or commercial success that brings him to my inspirational list... its the "other" side of the star that dazzles me.

He's not only a star, he's a successful producer, philanthropist, entrepreneur and most of all visionary. His choices in roles, be it in the films or outside...has always showed that the fellow is looking into future. Let it be his choice of negative roles or co-ownering the IPL cricket team or even in producing India's first truly Sci-Fi movie Ra.One...(commercial success of the movie is a different topic altogether, here I refer to only vision and effort behind the movie). And on top of that... he's a family man. If you ever had a chance to catch the show "Living with Superstar" on TLC; you'll see how involved in his family and children this King of Bollywood is. His son used to attend the same school as my cousin sis, a couple of years back... I still remember the teachers of his son going all sweaty and nervous on the PTA meetings, coz he used to attend each and every one of them. I mean, who wouldn't be nervous if SRK walks upto you and asks "Is there anything I can do to help you?"

There are tons of things I can go on listing about him, and I'm sure I will find a lot of people who will either object or criticise my admiration of the man... so, to conclude, I'll simply ask you this... Will YOU not respect and find inspiration in a man who describes his ambition in following words???

He explained that is ideology in life was:"I want to make movies so damn bloody big...that my parents somewhere sit down on a star and from there also can look at their son and say 'I can see his movies from here better than I can see the Wall of China or anything. We see his movies covering the face of this earth'.

Ohh...and it also helps that he is a BOOKWORM...just like me... :)


Apr 21, 2012

Inspiration Part II


"That's the perennial appeal of Magic. In religion, you have to depend on someone else.
In magic, you have only yourself to rely on"

She was a broke single parent, trying to get ends meet. Single, lonely, with a child to support...holding on to a dream. A dream of being a "published writer"...that was when she gave birth to one of the legends of the 20th century. She proved the complaining captains of "Children -Don't-Read-Anymore" league wrong. She not only is a live example of "rags to riches" but an ultimate inspiration to all those who have a dream. The female who single handed changed the perception of the world "magic" and brought meaning to utterly non-sensical words like Quidditch and Aloha Mora...is a live testament of following dreams into reality.

J K Rowling was living on social security, supporting a single child when she thought of Harry Potter. The novels were written through times of personal turmoils...but instead of wallowing in the pit, JKR used these personal troubles in her stories. Her mothers death found its way into Philosopher's stone as Harry's agony of being an orphan, while her personal clinical depression manifested itself as the dementors in Prisoner of Azkaban. And her trials and pains were rewarded in the most magnificent of ways. The lady saw herself, progressing from living on social security to multi-millionaire status within five years.




What I find truly inspirational about her is the simplicity with which she agrees that she still finds the success staggering. And humanity with which she says that Harry delivered her from a life of misery. To quote her...


Failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy to finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one area where I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realized, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter, and a big idea. And so rock bottom became a solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life. – J. K. Rowling, Harvard commencement address, 2008.

Apr 12, 2012

Why indeed?

"Do you know why I became a pilot?"
"No... No, why?"
"For the fun of it... Why else would anyone do anything,really..."

The Amelia Earhart to Larry Daely in the movie, The Night At The Museum-II
(pardon my spellings, am far too sleepy for a spellcheck)