This morning I read an article that put my life in perspective.

Generally I find Arun Shourie tedious to read. While he makes brilliant points, that get me thinking, his writing has never touched me. i find it tough to get past, not very involving – but data heavy.  But, this morning’s piece – The Weight of Love –  in the Indian Express moved me to tears. In this piece, an excerpt  from his book “Does He know a mother’s heart?”, he talks about his experience in brining up a child – who is now a 35 year old adult – with cerebral palsy. Although it is not explicit in the piece in the IE, the excerpts on various sites say that Mr.Shourie calls into the question the existence of God. Mr. Shourie asks what would you do if your neighbour has a son who is similarly affected:

The father shouts at him. He curses him: ‘You are the one who brought misery into our home… We knew no trouble till you came. Look at you — weak, dependent, drooling, good for nothing…’ Nor does the father stop at shouting at the child, at pouring abuse at him, at cursing the child. He beats him. He thrashes him black and blue… As others in the family try to save the child from the father’s rage, he leaps at them. Curses them, hits out at them. What would you think about that damned father? Wouldn’t you report him to the police or some such authority that can lock him up? Wouldn’t you try everything you can to remove the child from the reach of the father?

But what if the father is The Father — the ‘T’ and ‘F’ capital, both words italicised? That is, what if the ‘father’ in question is ‘God’?

the book has gone onto my Flipkart wish list – i tend to add books to my wish list and move 2-3 into the buy list every month.. my books shelves are croaking – not just creaking – under the weight of all the books .. and i try and give away a book or two every month (not very successfully) to make place for new books ..

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The piece also got me thinking about how lucky most of us are, and how much we crib about our lives… I remember growing up with so much lesser than what we have today – and there being so much laughter and joy in my life. My parents – were my age at one point of time – i wonder if they ever thought of themselves, the way my generation thinks of itself … they must have wanted all the things I do – the holidays, the lifestyle, the independence … and it isn’t that they didn’t have a choice. they did. yet there was this acceptance of life as it was. I wouldn’t call it a lack of desire for material things as much as prioritising values & family above acquisitions.

Has my generation – those who went to school in the 70’s and college in the 80’s – have we lost it ? the charm of life .. i wonder ..

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I read two excellent pieces on Guru Dutt – courtesy JKD. One was a piece in Upperstall – which talks about his life and work. Gives you delightful little insights like a young Guru Dutt learning classical dance from Uday Shankar. It quotes Raj Khosla – director of films like CID, Kala Pani, Ek Musafir Ek Hasina, – on Guru Dutt

“His ambition was not just to make a good film or be one of the top filmmakers. He aspired to make a great film, a different film and he wanted to be the best filmmaker. He always wanted things in absolute terms. Be it acclaim or success. He would settle for nothing less. Filmmaking was an obsession with him. He was a very ambitious man. But ambition is a passion that can destroy. It ultimately drove him to the point of no return.”

The second piece was in the Open Magazine, and was Dev Anand reminiscing about their friendship

However, he couldn’t take failure. Look, everybody meets with success, but you also face failure. Not every film is a masterpiece, not every film is a hit. But a film from a good maker is a good film. The day he realised his film was not a hit, he could never make one again.

 

and somehow these three pieces of reading makes me ask a question – is success in our lives only measured by corporate success or what others say about our work… And how do you measure other things like friendship or loyalty or family or relationships – though i prefer the Hindi word Rishte … Do they not matter at all ?

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Photos for the day – i realised the difficulty is not really shooting the picture. The inertia arises in grabbing it on the HDD , adding a border or a narrative to it .. and the uploading it … maybe that is why so many shoot on the phone and upload on various photo sharing sites… i haven’t yet managed to get the hang of shooting on the phone, it doesn’t seem real to me

Mom and Dad went to the temple today. got back some laddus and this rose. amma pinned it up in my hair… wonder what happened to wearing flowers in one’s hair .. wonder when that tradition died ..

This one, I actually shot yesterday – but there were just too many pictures yesterday .. i kind of liked this one. .

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Started a Play list for Sahir Ludhianvi – enjoyed wading through his filmography picking out my favorites, as well as hearing music I hadn’t heard before. this is work in progress. am going to look at Shailender next and then Majrooh

http://www.youtube.com/p/7405C928266F67FE?version=3&hl=en_GB&fs=1

This is work in progress, and will continue to hear and add to the playlist