Friendship

There are few topics in which how much ever we write and talk about we will never get tired of talking about..One such topic is friendship..Friendship is a really beautiful feel...The beauty,the trust and the confidences..One cant put that it words..I am glad i have few ppl whom i can call as spl frnds.. :-)



Sometimes in life, you find a special friend;
Someone who changes your life
just by being part of it.
Someone who makes you laugh
until you can't stop;
Someone who makes you believe
that there really is good in the world.
Someone who convinces you
that there really is an unlocked door
just waiting for you to open it.

Thanks ma frnds for giving a spl meaning to my life...

Children of heaven

Today i watched the Iranian movie nominated 4 the academy awards under the foreign film category in 1998.Children of Heaven.The movie has almost no plot.I took the synopsis from wiki as i am too lazy to type.

Ali takes his little sister Zahra's shoes to the shoemaker to be repaired, but loses them on the way home. The siblings decide to keep the predicament a secret from their parents, knowing that there is no money to buy a replacement pair and fearing that they will be punished. They devise a scheme to share Ali's sneakers: Zahra will wear them to school in the morning and hand them off to Ali at midday so he can attend afternoon classes. This uncomfortable arrangement leads to one adventure after another as they attempt to hide the plan from their parents and teachers, attend to their schoolwork and errands, and acquire a new pair of shoes for Zahra. Zahra sees the lost shoes on a schoolmate's feet, and follows her home, but the two soon become friends.

Ali enters a high-profile children's footrace in the hope of receiving the third prize of a new pair of sneakers. He accidentally places first and wins another prize instead. The film ends with Zahra finding out that she will not get a new pair of shoes, but there is a quick shot of their father's bicycle at the end of the movie that shows what appears to be the red shoes Zahra had been focusing on earlier and another pair of white sneakers, presumably for Ali, whose old sneakers were torn from so much use. The film ends with the final shot showing blisters on Ali's feet. Some versions include an epilogue revealing that Ali eventually achieves the larger-scale success of having a racing career.

This movie has showed me a side of Iran that one cannot learn about in history books. The movie portrayed life in Iran through the eyes of a little kid and the struggles he faces.The movie also showed showed different aspects of Iranian culture such as family structure and relations. The father was seen as the one responsible for providing food for the family. The little girl would help the mother with preparing food and taking care of the baby. I was also able to see the Ta'arof in Iranian culture through offering food to the old and sick neighbors, and even "pretending" to refuse money after the gardening services were offered. The father took the money only after the old man insisted on it.The wide gap between the haves and the have nots have been very beautifully potrayed..

And again the entire story revolves around one pair of lost pink colour worn out shoes..It makes us realize that each and and every one of us in the world is responsible when a kid suffers to get basic necessities of life..Many a times we throw money frivolously seldom realizing that there are million children dying from hunger with one set of clothes battling and surviving through life.Am not taking a pessimistic view of life.We have to be aware of ground realities and try contribute towards the betterment of the world.

Shantaram

"It took me a long time and most of the world to learn what I know about love and fate and the choices we make, but the heart of it came to me in an instant, while I was chained to a wall and being tortured."These are some memorable lines of the novel penned by a convict who escaped from and Australian jail to Bombay..Life is sometimes queer..Society labels few ppl as bad and chain them behind bars..But seldom do we realize that "Prisons are the temples where the devils prey.Every time we turn the key we twist the knife of fate..Because every time we cage a man we close him with fate"


I have heard about people who come out of prison insane..However the author Shantaram alias David Gregory Roberts comes out with his soul intact as he is a master of survival."In his own words.."It is not just the body that must survive a jail term,the spirit and the heart has to make it through as well.And it is for those small victories of the heart the spirit and the will we sometimes risk the body that cradles them."

Shantaram is narrated by Lin, an escaped convict with a false passport who flees maximum security prison in Australia for the teeming streets of a city where he can disappear. As a hunted man without a home, family, or identity, Lin searches for love and meaning while running a clinic in one of the city's poorest slums, and serving his apprenticeship in the dark arts of the Bombay mafia. The search leads him to war, prison torture, murder, and a series of enigmatic and bloody betrayals.

Lin's journey in Bombay starts with his taxiwallah Prabakar..and amazingly he starts understanding the meaning and love of life through simple people.We get a beautiful perspective of the poor in India and the happy life they live with trust and simplicity inspite of not having much money.Are not they they the richest people in the world with lots of happiness and fulfillment???

Lin falls in love with the beautiful and enigmatic Karla a lady who wished that she had trusted him but couldnot.And in love he writes.."At first when u truly love some one our greatest fear is that the loved one will stop loving us.What we should fear and dread of course is that you cannot stop loving them even after they are dead and gone."Here love transcends lust and selfish cravings..This is real pure love..

And thus the novel passes from this moment to the other capturing the beauty in the world that we have taken for granted and realizing us the significance of it.In some of his concluding pages he writes "Nothing in life how well or poorly lived is wiser than failure or clearer than sorrow.And in the tiny precious wisdom that they give us even those dreaded and hated enemies sufferings and failures have their own reason and right to be"

Since my childhood i was often haunted with a question."What is the purpose of life?"Reading this book written by a man with such a vivid and wide range of experience, I finally realized with neither science nor philosophy that what the world wants is nothing but our love and the ability to forgive others as we can forgive ourselves .."The only kingdom that makes any man a king is the kingdom of his soul.The only power that has any real meaning is the power to better the world"..

This book is the product of his blood and sweat..grit and determination..Twice it has been destroyed in prison..and again with his ever enduring spirit the author had penned this 936 pages of semi fiction cum auto biography..With almost lyrical and musical quality..with lines from the depth of realization..the novel is a fantastic read..I read this book within 2 and a half days at NBRC like a maniac..Spl thanks to Richa didi who recommended it for me..

King of Pop...I feel sorry for u..

Michael Joseph Jackson is one larger than life figure in Music history..No one contributed more to the pop scenario than he did..He completely revolutionized the music industry by writing his own songs,composing music,playing it and dancing with it..

But when the news of his death hit the headlines on june 25th 2009 the world sees him as a fallen star and sympathize with him..The stark reality of the lonely life and the mounting debts he died with is really pathetic.Now arises a question was Jackson a successful person in the society???Wat do u measure success with?The way u please ppl or the amount of inner peace and happiness in life..Am not criticizing Jackson.He was a musical legend..and few ppl in world are blessed to have his amount of talent and grit.Unfortunately Jackson abused his own body for the public sake and sacrificed his soul for temporary euphoria by turning to drugs..
Whoever he was and whatever he did to himself..He gave beautiful music to the world..And whenever i hear the haunting voice of Jackson in "Heal the world" my deepest tribute to him..the one who could handle music but couldnt handle himself.