The Pursuit of Happyness... and the small little things that make up our life..

Well, tomorrow has been another day… and so I begin where Scarlet O’Hara left off…

Many a time, there comes a point in life where you start to wonder what your purpose in this world is & if you’ve been able to go towards or touch even the surface of what you set out to accomplish. On a cold Tuesday morning of October, exactly 10379 days ago I was born into this world. There has been an abundance of all the elements that make up life in my life too. There have been good times & there have been testing times….

Recently I completed 200 posts on my photoblog ‘Moments of Magic’(http://jadookepal.blogspot.com)… and when I posted it, and added some lines to it, I started understanding how lucky I am to have lived those moments & been able to count those moments & capture them. Its so easy in the rigmarole of life, to let these small little things that make up our life pass right under our nose… some of the best moments of our life… but sooner or later we realize that these are some of the special moments that make our life what it is… sometimes I feel a deep sense of gratitude, some nostalgia, sometimes inspiration, sometimes pure peace…

* driving four hours in the wee hours of the morning to the tip of the country, just to catch the first rays of the sun in the new millennium
* getting up in the early hours of the morning, walking in the middle of acres of sesame crops (sarson ka khet) & soaking up the first rays of the sun
* touching the morning dew that has settled on a flower
* walking in the mist & letting it engulf you
* the smell of the forest & the smell of the earth before it rains
* walking in the rain, looking up to the skies & seeing the small drops fall on you
* watching a flower bloom & smelling the aroma of nature
* sunset in the snow-clad mountains, watching the color change from pure white to burning charcoal
* starry night with the moon looking like a pearl mountains against the violet sky

Music & Lyrics... and some magical lines…

The title seems to imply that I've been inspired by the movie, well it was a simple & feel good movie but its not one that I'll go gaga over neither is it worthy of too much blog space. But the dialogue that Sophie (Drew Barrymore) tells Al(ex) (Hugh Grant) is a ear catcher "Melody is like the person who you see, meet spend time with... Lyrics are what the person is really made of" (well, don't fight with me for not putting it verbatim)

As a movie, it’s a simple one - a has-been musician who is living on the laurels of his past gets a wake-up call. Write one new song & he could change from history to the present. His plant watering girl butts into the mix & the rest is bollywood style. They write the song, face their fears & discover love...

The catchy songs & the so called humorous script were a saving grace. Hugh Grant turns in another good performance as a has-been (is there any inspiration from real life). Drew exchanges her usual sensuality for a girl-next-door act which is very believable & lovable. So if you're reading this & thinking, should I or should I not - I'd say its worth watching at least once.

Now coming back to the dialogue that caught my attention, and yours if you're still reading this. Its strange how some of these different dialogues stick in your mind. Some famous ones are embedded in everybody's mind.

"I'll make him an offer that he can't refuse"
"I'll be back"
"Hasta la vista, baby"
"My name is Bond, James Bond"


These are patronized, often adopted & used & abused too until they get a cult status. But there are often many simple dialogues that are not talked about much, neither are they quoted, but nevertheless they mean a lot when you hear them & think about them. I'll share some that I think are worthy of mention...

Western

Last week I was watching a western classic from my collection, goes by the name of Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid, I'm pretty sure Salim-Javed were inspired by it & created the famous due of Jai-Veeru in Sholay. One dialogue that sticks in mind is "Kid, next time when I say 'Lets go some place like Bolivia', let's go some place like Bolivia"...

Life

Of course one of my all times favorite is from Forrest Gump "Mamma always said that life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get."

Romance

Another one is from Notting Hill, where Julia Roberts playing a film star Anna Scott says to Hugh Grant "I'm just a girl, standing in front of a boy… asking him to love her."

Wit

As Good as It Gets has its share of good lines. There's one where Helen Hunt tells Jack Nicholson "When I first saw you, I thought you were handsome. Then of course, you spoke".


Another one in the movie is when Jack tells Helen "You make me want to be a good man."

Humour

When Harry met Sally had its share of good lines. The one that I remember most is in the restaurant when Meg Ryan shows how to fake an orgasm & at the end of it all, the woman in the next table tells the waiter "I'll have what she's having"

Business

Cuba Gooding saying "Show me the money" in Jerry Maguire is also one that is worth of note.

Personality

Shrek has its own memorable dialogue "They judge me even before they get a chance to know me"

Bonding

Ice Age "That’s what happens in a herd. You stick for each other".

Patriotism

Mel Gibson as William Wallace in Brave heart "..for they can take our lives, but they can't take away our freedom"

Love

One for the love birds :o)) this one's again from When Harry met Sally "I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible."

Final Take

Final take from Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid. The Bolivian army surrounds the building where Butch & Kid are hiding in; they are wounded & have their last bullets to load. They weigh their chances & are about to barge out of the doors & that’s when the last dialogue of the movie comes... captures the essence of why they were legendary characters

“Good. For a moment there, I thought we were in trouble."

Signing Off

Gone with the Wind “After all, tomorrow’s another day”

'Seven wonders & one, of an auto ride in Chennai'

Well, all of us would have heard a lot of things being said about Chennai. All sorts of people have said it too. From historical figures to politicians and movie stars (means one & the same in this part of the world), everyone has had something or other to say about 'singara' Chennai. Yet, when I ponder I begin to wonder...

I'm not someone who you would put your money on if you want your portrait to be done, but I wouldn't mind trying out my hand. But if you ask me to sketch a city for you, Chennai probably won't be the first one on the list. It’s not because I don't know it, I've come to know of it quite well. It’s challenging because I'm finding it difficult to describe it. I rely a lot on intuition & get a 'feel' of things around me. This 'feel' has many a time come to my rescue in 'life or death' situations. But when I ask myself what I 'feel' about this city, I'm finding it difficult to express it.

All the small little things that happen around you are what make a city what it is. Some would like to call it culture. Well, going by that definition, the culture of many cities that I've been to & you'd be familiar with are easy to spell out. Whether it be the bustling Mumbai or the foggy Delhi or the humid Kolkata, things come straight to your mind when you think about it. That's not to say that I've not witnessed the Chennai summer, I have and appreciate the effect it can have on you. Asked for a word to describe it, I'd say resilient Mumbai, aggressive Delhi & melancholic Kolkata...what about Chennai?

My own conspiracy theory is that the culture of Chennai is defined by the autos that ply on its busy roads. And I have my own half a rupee of thoughts on that. Nothing defines things better than the local trains of Mumbai or the blue line buses of Delhi or the yellow cabs of Kolkata or the auto rickshaws of Chennai!! For starts, getting into an auto in Chennai is quite a spiritual experience in itself. If you don't brace yourself, you'll be taken for a ride, literally.

Whoever wrote that 'All men are equal & some are more equal than others' must have had these auto drivers in mind. It seems there are 50,000 registered autos running in Chennai city. I'd rather say they are 50,000 different ways of God getting even with you & giving you a chance to wash off your sins in this planet itself.

1) In Chennai, the phrase 'for hire' is an oxymoron when it comes to autos. You can have a ride as long as the driver's destination happens to coincide with yours.

2) Meters are things that exist only in English poetry. And even if they exist, it’s like one of those gadgets that you pay to watch in a museum.

3) Rates for your ride generally depend very little on your destination, and more on the Fibonacci sequence. When an auto driver tells you a rate, his mind works on a simple equation - choose any random number between 60 & 200, multiply the gullibility quotient of the person in front, raised to the power of the educational cess, multiplied again by the temperature in Celsius. During night time, the additional factor of the number of Sri Lankan refugees is taken into account.

4) The auto drivers have their ancestry from Rome, or so you'd think as anything other than straight roads are frowned upon. Needless to mention, that your rate will be recalculated with the 'turns & side streets' coefficient.

5) The corporation of Chennai should table a bill calling for seatbelts in autos. You certainly can go places in an auto & inside it too. If you ask me, there are two sets of people who could benefit from this. One set are the entrepreneurs who are thinking of a weight reduction program, what could be more ideal than getting your bones loosened & muscles tightened or having your 20 minutes a day of high pulse rate. The other set are religious leaders, since I feel that more people really 'pray' in the back of an auto than in any church or temple.

6) Popular music channels should plan to have their next VJ hunt exclusively among auto drivers of Chennai. Who else can entertain their passengers with 'their' choice of music along with the enacting of the dance sequence?

7) The match making websites should take a leaf out of the 'share autos' of Chennai. The tagline should be 'connecting people' or 'a lot can happen over an auto ride' & these share autos are creating a revolution by bringing about what Thomas Friedman calls globalization v.4

8) The mushrooming training centers in Chennai should think of a new course in 'negotiation skills' or 'conflict management' & use the auto rides for experiential learning. Now this is something that even the top B Schools haven’t thought of, so if anyone uses this idea do remember where the royalty check should be posted.

Well, I'm not stopping with eight because I've run out of steam, but more because I like to call this 'the seven wonders & one of an auto ride in Chennai'!! So now having given enough credence to prove my conspiracy theory on the culture of Chennai, let me take a bow for the time being – “I need to take my auto ride home”.

A Nomad's Words

From the time that I have known myself, which happens to be a little over 27 years now, I always have been searching for something. Its as if i'm wired for a quest, one which just ends only when another begins. And each journey brings with it new discoveries about myself & the world around me.

I'm no philosopher, neither am I a good writer, but I am a wanderer. I can be reclusive and distant, but travel with me & you'll see me the way I see myself and the world around me.

A Nomad, a wanderer, a bedouin shares in his words what he feels about the world around him...