Aankhon men hairaniyan le ke chal rahe ho to zinda ho tum

Zindagi na milegi dobara is an interesting film.

Of the many things I liked about the movie...one which I really liked is the poetry recited by Farhaan urf Imraan.

The movie ends with a few lines going like this:

Dilo men tum apni betabiyan le ke chal rahe ho to zinda ho tum
Nazar men khabon ki biljiyan le ke chal rahe ho to zinda ho tum

hawa ke jhokon ke jaise azad rehna seekho
tum ek dariya ke jaise lehron men behna seekho
har ek lamhe se tum milo kholey apni bahen
har ek pal ek naya saman likhe yeh nigahen

jo apni aankhon men hairaniyan le ke chal rahe ho to zinda ho tum
Dilon men apni betabiyan le ke chal rahe ho to zinda ho tum

Great meaning...it talks about almost everything in life including living the moment

enjoyed it

Another line I remember is

'Yeh jo gehre sannate hain...waqt ne sabko hi baante hain
thoda ghum hai sabka hissa...thodi dhoop hai sabka hissa...

superb lines written by Javed Akhtar...mazaa aa gaya

Missed a flight

There are various ways of categorizing people in this world…popular ones being the dual approach….those who have seen the Taj mahal and those who haven’t (very popular in the west)…in Amitabh Bacchan style…ek woh jo saari zindagi ek hi kaam karte rehten hain aur doosre who jo ek hi zindagi men saare kam kar lete hain….so on and so forth.

Let me add one more duality. People who have never missed a flight/train and those who have. I belonged to the first category till 13 December 2011 but now I am on the other side. Missed my morning flight to Indore by 7 minutes…check in stops 45 minutes prior to Departure.

I had so much enjoyed narrating stories to people on how I had caught flights despite being late and how I had boarded moving trains…Jab we met style. But I guess…ran out of luck on the 13th…unlucky number.

It’s a very strange feeling to miss a flight…as usual you try to figure out reasons. There are only two ways…either you take responsibility for being late or put the responsibility on the airline (start blaming the airline for being rude…didn’t allow you in despite being just 7 minutes late)

If you take responsibility…there are two ways to go about it…feel guilty that you didn’t wake up in time (my flight was an early morning flight 5.40am so had to get up at around 3.15 in the morning to be there as I live far far away from the airport…have I started giving reasons again?)…you could have planned it better etc etc.

The other way of taking responsibility is to accept you were a lazy bum and take a resolution…never to be late again. In fact one of my friends who had always heard my Jab we met stories…was happy to hear that I missed the flight. She said “Now you are never going to be late…ever in your life”…Well that time will tell. But I guess she is true. I have resolved to be more responsible now.

Its great to see people’s behaviours who are late…obviously, the lady at the counter marks your reporting time on the ticket print out and asks you to see the supervisor …sitting at a quieter counter at the airport.

I had been late once before also and the lady supervisor had bailed me out but it was not the same this time…she was clear…the boarding check in software was blocked 45 minutes before and its all over.

Story of people who put the responsibility elsewhere - There was guy right next to me who screamed at the lady and bullshitted her. He said I want to see your boss and this and that. Its just a few minutes…it always this with Jetlite etc…I have a meeting with the minister…etc. And then a few minutes later he was polite…tried every tactic but the lady didn’t budge. I asked her one last time…she said she couldn’t do anything…I moved to the bookings counter to reschedule my ticket as the man continued with his persuasions.

I think its good that the rules are being followed strictly at the Delhi airport now. I am in for it…though I missed my flight. An aircraft works on 100 percent integrity…there is no compromise on any component working below efficiency…the Pilot cannot say…yaar bus thoda sa kum fuel dalwaya tha…airport se 4 kilometre pehle khatam ho gaya.

I am glad I missed the flight …love to be on the other side.

P.S - Incidentally, a number of people in my office have been missing flights/trains and have shared with the boss that its their first time that they missed. I don’t know if its true for them or not… but its true for me. I will also share the same with my boss.

Laxmi = paisa or...Dollars

A picture of Goddess Lakshmi outside a shop caught my eye.

I couldnt believe it at first...Did I see dollars in the picture? The picture was a usual one... with Lakshmi sitting on the lotus (If I am correct)...with multiple hands ...each having something different. There were coins flowing from one of the hands....But...in the background were dollar bills...1 dollar bills.

Had it been a shop in New York...it was still palatable but...to see dollars in a local panwala shop was surprising. Money now meant dollars and not Indian rupiah...Lakshmi was equivalent to dollars.

Then I thought...thats the truth... Dollar is the global currency.

Went back to my workstation and shared it with my office colleagues. There was this discussion on how idols of Ganesha etc were now being manufactured in China. Reminded me of an article in HT on that one. One of my friends said, ' You never know...soon there could be Chinese yen in the background instead of dollars'.

She was so true...but its amazing to see how currency has seeped into the depiction of Lakshmi.

I am sure the Diwali celebrations in Europe and US among the Indian diaspora would obviously have dollars and Euros instead of Rupiah.

P.S - Dont miss the rat eating the modak....Dont miss George Washington in the background?

PS 2 - If dollars have influenced Lakshmi...not long till it influences our lyricists

Kyun paisa paisa karti hai, Kyun paise pe tu marti hai

may change tu

Kyun dollar dollar karti hai, Kyun dollar pe tu marti hai

Newspapers

The other day an article written by me was published in a leading national daily on the edit page. Ever since I have looked at the daily newspaper with a different eye…looking at credits…who has written which feature?
But one does a variety of things with the newspaper. I used the newspaper as a table mat, while I was having lunch in office and it occurred to me that I was eating over somebody’s article. And then numerous images came to my mind on how I had used the aspirations of many a writers (read trophies) to clean my cup boards or pick up some filth somewhere…that’s what newspapers help us do. Even my piece of wisdom printed on some newspaper must have become somebody’s cupboard mat (fortunately) or may have been used to clean baby crap (unfortunately).

Just the other day, the daughter of one of my colleagues was featured in a newspaper in a photograph. The proud mother has put the photograph on the softboard at the office. But another copy of the same page could be somebody’s raddi…or a paper napkin at the local paranthawala…or a wrapper for chan chor garam.

Strange story of newspapers. It could make somebody’s day (when s/he sees her name in the newspaper) and at the same time be utilized by someone.

Newspapers are like soil.