The Namesake

I watched the movie a couple of weeks back and was very impressed with the story-line.
The actors had played their role so perfectly, it was as though the story was made just for them... but still, there was still something missing. A few loopholes that I cold not understand - So I picked up the book.
I finished reading the book yesterday. Yeah I finished it in a day :)
Its again one of those books that you just cannot put down. The ideas, the narrative style, the reality of the story, the true portrayal of feelings and emotions - makes you want to go on.
Movie Vs The book
I liked the book better as it has the complete picture. The book revolves around the life of Gogol, the others just being 'other' characters in the movie.
In the movie, I felt more importance was given to Ashima and Ashoke's characters. At the end of the movie, I wasn't able to fully comprehend what the story teller was trying to put across...

But now, reading the book, its all clear. Any movie which is adopted from a book cannot capture all that the book has to say. Same is the case with this movie/book.
But then, I loved the book and would now love to watch the movie again :)

Book time again!

The book for this weekend is "Who will cry when you die?" by Robin Sharma, the author of "The monk who sold his Ferrari"

I thought I'd just flip through the contents of the book and read it later on, but once I read through the 1st chapter I just could not put the book down. So I finished reading the book & am jotting down points that I found interesting.

The book starts off with - We live in an age when we have forgotten what life is all about. We can easily put a man on the moon but we have trouble walking across the street to meet a new neighbour. We can fire a missile across the world with pinpoint accuracy, but we have trouble keeping a date to go with our children to the library. We have email, fax and digital phones but yet we live in a time when human beings have never been less connected. We have lost touch with our own humanity, have lost touch with our purpose & have lost sight of things that matter the most.

Key points in the book to live a better and more fulfilling life:

• Everyday be kind to a stranger
• Every second you dwell in the past, you steal from your future. Every minute you spend focusing on problems, you take away from finding solutions.
• Talk to yourself - choose a phrase for a day and keep repeating it to yourself. Your phrase could be anything like "I am a confident and strong person"
• Worry breaks - assign about 1/2 hour each day to ponder upon your worries and to brood over difficulties. Do this only during the assigned time, any other time during the day is for you to be positive and efficient.
• Take more risks - On your deathbed, it'll not be the risks that you took that you will regret the most. Rather what fills you with greatest amount of regret and sadness is for the risks that you did not take, the opportunities you did not seize & fears you did not face.
• Master your time - Every person is given an equal share of 24 hours in a day - so what separates people who create great lives from the others is - how they use their time.
• Keep your cool - Anyone can get angry - but to get angry with the right person, at the right time for the right reason, to the right degree & in the right way- that is not easy.
• Get good at asking - Ask for a better table at your favourite restaurant, ask for a 2nd free scoop of ice cream, ask for a complimentary upgrade to your flight seat. The person who asks, gets... or at least has a chance of getting.
• Develop your talents - There's a difference between simply existing and living. The deepest personal defeat is the difference between what one is capable of becoming and what one actually becomes,
• Get a coach - Talk to a person who has followed steps to reach success. Learn and follow those steps and success will be yours too. Find your mentor.
• Become a volunteer - "I wept because I had no shoes, until I met a man with no feet". Find time to spend with the less fortunate & you will realise how blessed you are.
  
• Stop complaining start living - The people who get on in this world are the ones who look for the circumstances they want, and if they can't find them - they make them.
• Increase your value - You will be compensated not by how hard you work but by how much value you add to the world around you.
• Be the CEO of your life - I love this mantra which I've read sometime earlier also "If it is to be, it is up to me"
• Don't be so hard on yourself - Accept your mistakes, learn from it and move on
• Live fully, so you can die happily
  

This was a truly great read :)

Hope .... yeah right!

Musical Evening

Yesterday evening was a Musical Delight.. I went to a concert by Kadri Gopalnath with Kanyakumari accompanying him on the violin.
The very first note that he played on the saxophone had such an impact. Until then I had not heard anyone play the instrument live, I've only heard recorded versions of various songs. But then... it was a moment of complete awe... the echo effect produced and the impact it created... was just incredible.
Yesterday's event wasn't completely a classical one (though I'd have preferred it that way). Kadri played various bhajans and devotional songs and had the audience asking for more.
Smt.Kanyakumari played the perfect accompaniment. When each of the instruments is played on a different octave (for those who aren't too familiar with this term, it means playing one instrument at a higher pitch while the other is played at a lower one) the effect is magnificent!
How can I forget the percussionists :)
The Mridangam player was from Trichy and the Tabla player & the one playing the Morsing were from Bangalore. It was a great team effort!

When it comes to the sax for the Indian music - Kadri is the master!

Oh no ... No cheese for me!

Was having a discussion with a few friends over lunch on Friday about the book “Who Moved My Cheese”. We were five of us, of whom 2 hadn’t read the book.

I personally love this book. I like the concept, the way the thoughts are put across. It has complicated ideas and suggestions for betterment, illustrated in a very simple manner.

One friend said, I just don’t understand what you like about that book, I don’t like it.
Another said, I read the book like a fairy-tale. Read it like a story but didn’t pay much attention to the principles explained in the book, that why I think I liked it.

But for me, the book provided a great insight into how change affects people and how they react to them. Its something that happens to everyone, but for someone to explain it, it’s a mighty task.
There is one simple sentence in that book that I have adopted as a part of my thinking process. This is something I try to apply in my life whenever possible. The sentence goes:
There are various junctures in life, when my heart prompts me to do something, which it knows is right - but then I hesitate and think if I should be doing it. That’s when I ask myself, “If I weren’t afraid, what would I do?” and …. then I know the answer :)

Missing you... Thatha

Taking a quick walk down the nostalgic lane….

Summer holidays every year - amma, my brother and I used to pack off to my grandparents house in Madras (or so it was called then). From the Central station, the electric train to Pallavaram… and a cycle rickshaw to Pammal. Or sometimes it was a treat to get a tonga ride home :)
Then there was thatha's blue and white Bajaj scooter. I used to stand in the front as we rode across town on the bumpy roads.
I very vividly remember thatha telling us the story of “Merchant of Venice”, I was very impressed with Portia’s character hm….

There are some things that we always did when we went to Madras – one day of shopping in Mambalam, a trip to Kanchipuram, a visit to either the Vandalur zoo/the crocodile park and my favourite – the Marina Beach :)
Yeah… those were the good old days ….

Amma always says - people of the older generations knew how to love, how to show their affection and care and make others around them feel wanted – this is such a rare sight these days, that too amongst us selfish people, all that we are bothered about is "us"!
What is it about grandfathers that makes them so adorable… I'm still wondering!