Racial prejudice – a perfect analogy

Racial hatred, in it’s meanest form has been around for hundreds if not thousands of years. I first read about it in school history textbooks and it was quite difficult to grasp the seriousness of such events then.

A few glaring examples I’ve read about over the years are – the slavery of African black persons and the subsequent American Civil War in the 1860’s, the animosity towards ethnic Jews in Nazi Germany during the 1930’s and 40’s and the eventual Holocaust resulting in the gruesome mass-murders of approximately 6,000,000 innocent people in Europe, the military crimes purported against certain Vietnamese towns during the Vietnam War, the racial genocide during the Yugoslav wars in the 1990’s, the long-drawn civil war in Sri Lanka between the Tamil minority and the Sinhalese majority. Back home too racial and caste discrimination has been entrenched in the heart of Indian culture and religion for centuries, though it has been abolished under the Indian Constitution. Branding people as ‘untouchables‘, restricting their entry into temples and other places of divine worship are just a couple of examples of how deep rooted this notion is.

For many years now I have thought hard on what creates this prejudice and how our mind segregates people into the good and the ugly. I’ve often wondered whether it does this intuitively or methodically. Though one cannot downplay the role good and bad experiences play in the formation of this racial bias, the ‘intuition’ factor cannot be neglected. I’ve tried in vain for some time now to come up with an explanation for this intuition, until I came across a few dialogue lines from a movie I saw recently, which really hit the nail on the head!

The following lines are from Quentin Tarantino’s 2009 directorial venture ‘Inglorious Basterds‘ (which along with winning many awards till date, has also been nominated for 8 ‘Oscars’ categories including Best Motion Picture).

A still from the scene in the movie -

The scene is when SS (German) Colonel Hans Landa, a character brilliantly portrayed by Austria-born actor Christoph Waltz, arrives at the countryside house of farmer Perrier LaPadite in Nazi-occupied France to search for Jews hiding in his sanctuary. Here he explains why Hitler and most of his contemporaries hate the Jewish race. He starts by comparing the Germanic race with ‘hawks’ and the Jewish race with ‘rats’, claiming that he doesn’t consider the comparison as an insult. Then he says…..

COL. Hans Landa: Consider for a moment the world a rat lives in. lt’s a hostile world, indeed. lf a rat were to scamper through your front door, right now, would you greet it with hostility?

Perrier LaPadite: l suppose l would.

COL. Hans Landa: Has a rat ever done anything to you to create this animosity you feel toward them?

Perrier LaPadite: Rats spread disease. They bite people.

COL. Hans Landa: Rats were the cause of the bubonic plague, but that’s some time ago. l propose to you any disease a rat could spread, a squirrel could equally carry. Would you agree?

Perrier LaPadite: Oui (Agrees in French)

COL. Hans Landa: Yet, l assume you don’t share the same animosity with squirrels that you do with rats, do you?

Perrier LaPadite: No.

COL. Hans Landa: Yet, they’re both rodents, are they not? And except for the tail, they even rather look alike, don’t they?

Perrier LaPadite: It’s an interesting thought, Herr Colonel.

COL. Hans Landa: However interesting as the thought may be, it makes not one bit of difference to how you feel. If a rat were to walk in here, right now, as l’m talking would you greet it with a saucer of your delicious milk?

Perrier LaPadite: Probably not.

COL. Hans Landa: l didn’t think so. You don’t like them. You don’t really know why you don’t like them. All you know is you find them repulsive.

Credit must be given to Tarantino (screenplay) for stating this analogy so plainly! Quite frankly, this is the best analogy I’ve ever come across describing the basic notion of racial hatred and it’s intrinsic nature; it is something which comes naturally to everyone of us. Once we accept and understand this fundamental idea, overcoming it becomes a fair bit easier. Obviously, gaining proper knowledge is the only way to stop this racial discrimination and co-exist with each other without brewing hatred in our hearts; only then can we call ourselves a civilized society.

Many recent studies (e.g. the early human migration theory) have proven that we all are descendants of a small group of people who originated in the northern part of the African continent over 70,000 years ago and eventually migrated all over the world. The various races and different physical appearances (e.g. skin color, height, physique, eating habits) we experience in the world population today are due to the varying local environmental conditions these tribes faced during the acclimatization process during these 70,000 years. A recent BBC documentary illustrated this study in more detail. This theory in itself should end the racial debate forever.

As for the movie, I hope it fares well at the ‘Oscars’!

Information and images courtesy of IMDb.com and Wikipedia.org.

‘Harishchandrachi Factory’ – Human resourcefulness in the spotlight

Rarely have I come across marathi films which have portrayed the great human qualities of enthusiasm and resourcefulness in a way that Paresh Mokashi’s movie ‘Harishchandrachi Factory‘ has depicted. As I was walking out of the theatre yesterday after watching a matinee show of this movie, I couldn’t help but admire not just Mokashi’s work but also the vision and spirit of Dhundiraj Govind Phalke (popularly known as Dadasaheb Phalke) who was the founding father of Indian cinema, a person lightyears ahead of his time.

‘Harishchandrachi Factory’ – First Theatrical Trailer

Without giving away too many spoilers, I’ll try to convey my impressions about the movie and the life and times of Dadasaheb Phalke. Mokashi could have very well made a documentary-type film about the legendary Director-Producer-Scriptwriter, but by inducing the element of comedy and sarcasm in the movie, he has perfectly captured the personality of Phalke – a sort of Charlie Chaplin touch by the Director in illustrating social apathy through comedy. The movie never lingers on any incident for more than five minutes, which is great when you realize how much of his life they had to portray and the amount of research the creative team would have to do to achieve this. In fact many scenes (especially during Phalke’s first London tour) run in a sort of 2x speed, giving you the general idea about how Phalke went about learning the art of film-making without drifting away from the basic idea of the movie. The traditional setting of British-Raj ‘Bombay’ has been wonderfully rendered in the sets and costumes of the actors. The casting is good too, in fact this is one area in which the Marathi film industry is looking into seriously nowadays. Some scenes, like the shooting of (probably) India’s first ‘home movie’ when Phalke’s wife shoots a motion-picture of their three kids, or the scene where Phalke allays the fears of his crew by asking them to describe their workplace as a “picture factory” (using English words to add weight to their argument), add lightness to the story.

Phalke’s early ventures with different forms of stage entertainment, like still-photography and magic shows (using a pseudo-name which was an acronym of his actual surname), and his craving for knowledge of new stuff is excellently represented. The unwavering support he got from his family is rightly highlighted throughout the movie, especially in the dialogue where Phalke is leaving for his London tour and whispers in his wife’s ear – “He sagla tuzhyamule hou shakala..” (All this was made possible because of you). The fact that his wife not just looked after the meals for the entire crew but also looked after the editing and development of the actual film rolls shows how much she was involved in her husband’s dream! She was a perfect mix of traditional values and modern thinking. The way Phalke, against all odds, stuck to idea of creating a motion-picture and later crossed each hurdle in his path with a perennial smile on the face, faith in his mind and a solution in his head is simply awesome. For me, the portrayal of his resourcefulness is the main selling point of this movie. If ever you needed a strong-willed person to create a piece of history, you had that person in Dadasaheb Phalke.

The commitment he showed during the entire endeavor of making his first film was nothing short of spectacular, sometimes even choosing work before the health of family members. He had realized the fact that in a silent film, emotions on the actor’s face and the overall body language of the performer would be of utmost importance. This is illustrated in how he forced male actors doing female roles to practice draping the Indian ‘saree’ and work in it all day so that the movements and actions would come naturally to them.

At that time the idea of moving-pictures-on-a-screen was as bizarre as the modern idea of having human settlements on planet Mars. The way Phalke convinced other people, including some suspicious and cynical friends, and the way he marketed the finished product to the masses shows how he used his wit to his advantage. His wish to continue making films in India despite receiving lucrative offers from Producers and film-makers to make them in the United Kingdom shows his attitude.

For an industry which churns out a staggering amount of movies each year, you might have thought that a film about how the juggernaut started would have come long time ago. I think Paresh Mokashi has tried to fill that void with this movie. Believe me, it still seems unbelievable sometimes that not too long ago Marathi movies were generally shunned by big multiplex theaters. Movies like Amol Palekar’s ‘Anahat‘ changed this for the good and today Marathi movies are given slots in competition with mainline Hindi movies. Whether ‘Harishchandrachi Factory’ should have been included in the award category for Best Foreign Language Film at the Annual Academy Awards (Oscars) this year is up for debate. I personally think this decision is subjective, and depends upon the taste of the jury and the knowledge of the cultural background and chronological time in which the story is based.

I’m not complaining though, because if it would have been selected in the above mentioned category at the Oscars’, we would have had to wait for some time before it started playing in theaters here. In a funny sort of way I’m glad that didn’t happen!

Matthias Wandel – a ‘genius’ with wood

Have you ever heard of a ‘wooden’ CD changing machine? Or a ‘wooden’ air engine? Or (for the computer-savvy) a marble binary adding machine? My guess is, you’ll find all this crazy. Well, you’re not alone, I did too, until I glanced through a couple of pictures and saw a few videos of these awesome creations. Talk about creativity with a simple piece of wood, this guy has surpassed all levels!

A brief look at Matthias Wandel’s woodworking website says it all. He has not just created ingenious pieces of wooden furniture but has also found a way to make fun projects from the same pieces. The little robots he has made using Lego bricks are simply amazing! I reckon that some even have educational value attached with them (eg. the marble binary adding machine). Before I go on further, here are a few videos (mind you, there’s LOTS more fun stuff on his site and on his YouTube profile) -

Lego domino row building machine -

CD changing robot in action -

Marble machine in action -

Marble binary adding machine -

Wooden air engine -

Evolution of the Lego marble machine -

His fascination with such craftwork does not stop only at wooden wonders. He has even dabbed into light photography and macro photography with similarly spectacular results. On his website, he has given wonderful insights into his woodworking hobby, has shared some useful tricks and has added pictures explaining the techniques and tools he employs to manufacture the gears and other building blocks for his various robots and machines. I bet we are in store for some more wooden marvels from Matthias in the near future!

Carrying yourself famously

Many years ago, when I was in school, I had come across the phrase – “fame is like a double-edged sword”. It was only of literal value to me at that time. But as I grew up and got acquainted with the various stories about famous people in the contemporary world, the real meaning of that phrase started to dawn on me.

It must be a great feeling to be a hero in some field, be it in front of a camera on a film set or in a sporting arena playing in front of thousands of cheering fans. But when you are that famous, you tend to become a role model or an idol for many mere mortals, and that is the tricky part because that is where the term ‘responsibility’ comes in. How you carry yourself off the field is what matters in the bigger picture, and I think that separates the ‘greats’ from the ‘legends’.

It is easy to transgress the moral limits – ‘human nature’ some may call it. The sport of Football has had a long history of it’s players crossing the line in off-field altercations with the media and the public, and also wrecking their personal lives due to drug abuse and bigamy. All this at the expense of their professional careers. Diego Maradona is one such ‘great’ player who comes to mind immediately, but there are many others. Cricket too has had it’s fair share of controversies, and Shane Warne’s name is almost synonymous to it. The match-fixing scandal in the late 90’s is another case in the point. Some Indians like Mohammad Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja had to do away with their careers, but in the case of South African captain Hansie Cronje, it completely obliterated the respect held for him by the Cricket-loving people. In the end it was a miracle that the sport did not loose talented players like Herschelle Gibbs in that storm.

The sport of Golf has been relatively immune to such controversies, but the latest revelations about Tiger Woods’ personal life transgressions proved this to be nothing but fallacy. I must admit that I always looked up to him as an idol for his on-field attitude and he was the last person I expected to have to wash his dirty linen in the public. The world of Tennis too has recently encountered Andre Agassi’s confessions on how he inadvertently consumed performance enhancing drugs during his playing days and later tricked the doping authorities to remain clean.

Does this mean that no person, however legendary he / she may be, can escape stepping on such minefields? I don’t think so. Sachin Tendulkar is one such person whom I can think of who has carried himself amazingly well over his playing career, despite the fact that he is constantly under the media scanner for every move he makes. In fact, apart from his numerous batting records, many contemporary cricketers acknowledge this to be his greatest achievement. I can’t recall fingers being pointed at the personal lives of other cricketing legends like Sir Donald Bradman or Sir Garfield Sobers either. There will surely be similar examples in other sports too. Also, if you observe closely, rarely have such controversies been reported in the early part of the last century (apart from the world of Boxing and Wrestling), only recently have such debates come to the fore.

So does it then come down to the culture surrounding the person or his childhood upbringing? Or is this just part and parcel of life? Big words maybe, and some people may get offended by it, but it’s definitely something to consider.

Images Courtesy

Diego Maradona (Wikimedia OTRS System)

Hansie Cronje (The Independant, UK)

Tiger Woods (Sports Illustrated – CNN)

Doodle 4 Google: Creativity at it’s best

Google has had a long history of interesting and sometimes funny ‘Doodles’ i.e. innovative and artistic ways of displaying the Google logo on their search home page. People who have read ‘The Google Story’ may recall that the idea started from the logos for the ‘Burning Man’ festival on their home page many many years ago, when Google had just started out as a company. Through these drawings they not only celebrate the birthdays of famous people, but also commemorate important events in history. I’ve always loved them and have waited to see what they would churn out for a special day or an event; and I know I’m not in a minority here.

They recently conducted the ‘Doodle 4 Google’ competition, where school children from various countries got a chance to design these Doodles and win various prizes apart from an opportunity to see their Doodle displayed on the Google search home page for an entire day. This competition was also run here in India. Some of you may know about this already, but for those who don’t, do check out the entries of the finalists. Some of them are simply mind-blowing and they give us an idea how imaginative and creative school children can be!

You can read more on Dennis Hwang, the man behind the Google Doodles. There are also some related YouTube videos.

Time lapse video of Google Doodle creation by Dennis Hwang -

Doodle 4 Google: Doodlers in Action -

Doodle 4 Google Awards Ceremony -

This is probably the most lovely and intuitive doodle animation ever created by Google -

Making the world a better place.. with cookies..

A couple of weeks ago I saw the movie ’Stranger Than Fiction‘, starring Will Ferrell and Maggie Gyllenhaal in the lead roles, and backed up by great performances by Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffman (one of my all time favorite actors.. remember ’Kramer vs. Kramer‘ and ’Rain Man‘?). As much as I was impressed by the performance of Will Ferrell, the movie’s story-line didn’t appeal a lot at the start, but as I watched on, it just turned out to be one of those “need-to-take-a-look-at-the-quality-of-your life” type of movies. Another such movie which immediately comes to memory is ‘Groundhog Day’ (starring Bill Murray), another masterpiece.

Right, so now that I have finished showing off my movie-memorization skills, let’s move on. Beyond the original message of this movie, there was one dialogue / conversation between the lead actors which stuck with me long after I had finished watching it, so I thought I should share it with all of you. The conversation takes place in the bakery which is run by Ana Pascal (Maggie Gyllenhaal’s character). Harold Crick (Will Ferrell’s character), a habitually non-enthusiastic IRS agent working for the US government, audits Ana’s business one day, and being a huge hater of taxmen and the government’s policies, she makes sure that he has a lousy time auditing her.

But somewhere inside she is slightly impressed by Harold’s genuineness and his commitment, in what he feels is his way of making the world a better place by helping the government in collecting taxes, which would then use the money to implement social welfare schemes. As night falls, he decides to call it a day and leave for home. Just then she offers him some fresh cookies that she has just baked. He reluctantly accepts the offer and strikes a conversation with her about how she ended up being a baker.

Harold: So when did you decide to become a baker?

Ana: In college..

Harold: Oh, like in a cooking college?

Ana: I went to Harvard Law actually.

Harold: Oh, I’m sorry, I just assumed it was..

Ana: No, no, that’s fine. I didn’t finish.

Harold: Something happened?

Ana: No, I was barely accepted. I mean, really, barely! The only reason they let me come was because of my essay – ‘How I was going to make the world a better place with my degree’. And, anyway we would have to participate in these study sessions.. my classmates and I.. sometimes all night long.. and so I baked.. so that no one would go hungry while we worked. Sometimes I would bake all afternoon in the kitchen in the dorm and I would bring my little treats to the study groups.. and people loved them. I made oat milk cookies, peanut-butter bars, dark chocolate, macadamia nut wedges, and everyone would eat and stay happy and study harder and be better on the tests.. and then more and more people started coming to the study groups.. and I’d bring more snacks.. and I was always looking for better and better recipes.. until soon it was.. apricot croissants.. and mocha bars with a almond glaze, and lemon chiffon cake with a zesty peach icing.. and at the end of the semester I had 27 study partners.. 8 mead journals filled with recipes.. and a ‘D’ average. So I dropped out. I just figured that if I was going to make the world a better place I would do it with cookies.

For me, this was the hidden message in the movie. We often decide our career path very early in life, and follow it so staunchly that we easily turn a blind eye to all other opportunities and gateways which can take us to the same destination, albeit using a different path, often the less trodden one. It’s not as if one path is better than the other, the point here is to recognize the one to which we are best suited to – the one that can give us the most satisfaction at the end of the day. Sure, earning a bit of money along the way doesn’t do much harm either.

In our society, people with unconventional careers often have a very different backgrounds. Persons in the music and theatre industry are prime examples. Some people I know in this field have been trained to become engineers and doctors. Most would admit that as time went by, their life was shaped by designs and events much beyond their control. Still, many would say that they have not drifted a lot from their original ambitions, only the means to achieve those have changed. They still manage to put a smile on the face of the people in front of them, if not by using a healing-hand and a stethoscope, then by using witty humor in their plays or by some melodious piece of music that they have created.

I think this still contributes to the task of ‘making the world a better place’!

What is on top of the refrigerator..

It has always amazed me how we humans have an affinity towards inanimate objects. Sometimes this feeling grows with time. Today I would like to talk about one such affinity of my childhood days.

Our earlier kitchen refrigerator was a 165 liter capacity model, which was about 5 feet tall. Dad had purchased it approximately 24 years ago, when I was only 4 years old, and just over a feet tall. It was kept in the kitchen, and apart from that refrigerator, no other kitchen furniture or appliance was more than 3 feet tall at best, which meant that I could make out what all was kept on top of those things. But the world on top of the refrigerator was sort of enigmatic, because the only way I could reach it was by standing on a stool or something similar.

I remember asking mom everyday what she used to keep on top of the refrigerator. Obviously whatever she kept there wasn’t a national secret or anything, but we often have strange curiosities when we are that young. As years went by, I grew tall, but until I reach a height of 5 feet, the ‘top’ of the refrigerator always remained sort of a mystery. Later, of course, once I could see the refrigerator top clearly it ceased to remain a puzzle. All the childhood curiosities quickly faded away, and the refrigerator continued to serve our family for a long long time.

Over time it started causing some performance issues and last week we decided to replace it with a new, bigger 340 liter refrigerator model. They delivered the new piece yesterday but as they were taking away the old one, I just felt as if they were also taking away some part of my prized childhood with them.

The irony is that the new one is about 6 and a half feet tall. I am at about 5 feet 8 inches. This means that I won’t be able to see the top of the refrigerator even today.. and at this age people will mock at me if I stand up a stool to check out this new world! Childhood.. reloaded!!

Have you ever come across..

Its been eons since I last updated my blog. I’m going to break the hiatus today, with something that I have always thought to be the most difficult of all literary tasks – translating an article from one language to another, without loosing its soul.

Last week I received a wonderful e-mail in Marathi from Sneha Rathod, a friend of mine. It was one of the best collection of thoughts I had read in a long long time. It struck me then that if I could try and translate that into English, it may reach a larger audience. So here goes… hope I do justice to the original article…

Most of the short stories mentioned here are in the context of the typical Indian society. But since social values rarely change among different regions, I hope you can find your own self somewhere in the varied emotions and subtle feelings of the protagonists, who show faith in these very values and trust in their relationships.

1. The rain is absolutely pouring down. The once bustling city has gone into hibernation mode. But not him. He is straddling away unabated on his bicycle, wading through the knee deep water, shouting as usual and selling his wares.

He is soaked in water. The raincoat was never going to be of any help in this rain. But he hardly has a choice. Though its late in the night, he must continue. He desperately needs money to enroll his children into school and buy some new clothes for his wife. He also needs to send some money back to his hometown. No wonder then that he is slogging it out for more than 20 hours in a day. This has taken a toll on his health and he looks dreary eyed now. A person who was known to be the most spirited and enthusiastic person in his group, has turned into an indifferent being today.

To a layman it may seem as if he is balancing the weight of the entire world on his shoulders. Defying adversity, he keeps his head high at all times. Have you ever come across such an optimist?

2. A family of four enter an up-market restaurant. A battle-hardened father, a resolute mother, a happy-go-lucky teenage girl and her confidently-responsible brother, reveling in the joy of his first salary.

The mother is finding it difficult to hide her pride. In all these years she had never thought that her opinion would matter to anyone. But today her son is giving her that importance. “What should I order for you, mother?”, he asks. “Oh, anything you order is fine with me son”, she blushes. In a moment, her entire life flashes before her eyes. The hardships encountered in bringing up the children. An eccentric husband. A prejudiced society. Today she fears no one. Her son has seen her toil away at life, and recognizes its value.

For the first time, the son doesn’t look at the price column on the menu card while ordering the dinner. Busy in her own thoughts, his mother quietly wipes away her tears of joy.

In the quiet atmosphere of the restaurant, have you ever observed such a relationship?

3. He is standing outside the movie hall waiting for her. Its been three years now that they have been having a close relationship. But she hasn’t yet mustered the courage to break the news to her father, fearing dire consequences.

The movie is about to start. His restlessness is palpable. After a few brief moments, he decides to try her cell number once more. There’s no answer from the other side. Thoughts run amok in his mind. He’s had enough of such secret meetings. He now has a good job, a good salary, “what more could her parents want?”, he thinks. “The time has come, today she will have to speak to her father about our relationship”, he says. But every ticking minute increases his anxiety. Now he decides to call her on her home number. He dials in the digits.

As luck would have it, her brother picks up the call. “Dare you call her again.. I will destroy your life..”

He is crestfallen upon hearing these words. Its as if somebody had snatched the earth from beneath his feet. He’s not sure what to do now. His predicament is in stark contrast with the fast-paced world around him. He sits there motionless, contemplating his next action..

In the rush to reach home to your loving family, have you ever come across such a person?

4. She comes out of the building in a very happy mood. She can’t help but smile even while calling a taxi to take her to the railway station. Now, she just can’t wait to break the news to her husband, but realizes that he will be busy at his workplace. “Should I still call him? After all, the news is big”, she murmurs to herself.

Upon reaching the station she realizes that the local train is just about to leave. Driven by habit, she rushes to catch it… and then suddenly realizes that now is not the time to rush through things. She will have to take more care of herself from now on.

Clutching on to a small envelope containing the report of her pregnancy test, she watches the train pull away.

Engrossed in a world of her own, have you ever come across such a woman?

5. She is very angry with everyone today. Someone in her class has played a silly prank on her and has thrown her school bag outside the window. Upset all day, she contacts her elder brother who studies in 5th grade, in the mid-school break and shares the incident with him.

He promptly goes to her classroom, and bullies everyone present into revealing the name of the boy who threw her bag out. The children of 3rd grade start getting frightened now. After some time, one boy cracks, and reveals the name of his offending classmate. Her brother finally gets hold of the prankster and gives him a good dressing-down. He also warns everyone against troubling his sister again in the future.

Her brother, with whom she’s always has silly fights at home, has turned into her saviour today. She fears no one when he is around.  This time she didn’t have to wait till the Rakshabandhan (the traditional Indian festival celebrating the relationship between brothers and sisters) to get her customary gift. He hugs and consoles her, wiping away her tears.

She is feeling on top of the world that day. Have you ever come across such siblings?

6. All the friends are laughing, for no apparent reason. She had attended an interview today and is narrating her experiences to her friends. The funny way in which the receptionist spoke, the sarcastic answers that she had prepared in her mind for the questions being asked to her… Its almost 12 O’Clock in the night, but since it’s a Sunday the next day, nobody is in a hurry to get up early in the morning. They are all enjoying the time in her hostel room.

But all this revelry still can’t hide her disappointment of not getting the job that day. She desperately needs it. Its been 3 months now, and the inflow of money from her home has ceased. If this continues for a few more weeks, she may have to vacate the hostel.

Almost unknowingly, the tension starts to show on her face… she realizes this and tries to push it back again.

“.. and the watchman was constantly looking at me.. in my mind I thought that…” and once more she succeeds in laughing away her tensions.

She knows that she is just trying to postpone the inevitable and is trying to cover her disappointment and anxiety with humor. Hoping for some change in luck, have you ever come across such a girl?

7. She is the boss, but to everybody in office she is ‘Miss Ruthless’ (a.k.a. Meryl Streep in the ‘The Devil Wears Prada’). Though she is still single and the youngest member of the group, she has reached the highest echelon in the company. That position has rubbed off on her personality, and until now the external world has only seen her as a merciless and heartless rock.

The meeting has started. As usual she is listening silently. Her cell phone rings. Normally she ignores such calls, but not today. She picks it up and within no time excitement breaks the tough lines on her face. She is all smiles.

“.. Oh when did this happen..”, she exults, and walks out of the room still speaking on the phone.

How the roles change. The person who was the ‘boss’ a few minutes ago has suddenly transformed into a simple ‘friend’. On the other side of the phone is her classmate from childhood, her best friend, who is getting married.

Her happiness is evident. It’s not everyday that an occasion comes along when she can forget all her responsibilities at the office and really let her hair down. Have you ever come across such a female?

Ping from childhood

It was a regular Thursday night.. I was doing some research for the solution to a technical problem I had faced in the office that day.. the clocked had just ticked past 12 am.. and I had already started yawning. It is normal practice for me to keep the Google Talk messenger ON while working.. so that you can chat with friends.. or rather ‘night owls’ (if in India) or ‘early birds’ (if in the US).. and it doesn’t get boring and eerie in the calm of the night..

Suddenly, I got an alert that I had received a new scrap (message) in my Orkut account. The name seemed new.. so I curiously opened the Orkut window to check out who it was. Well.. the scrap was equally strange.. some female had enquired if my mother’s name was Vasudha. Now, my mom frequently writes articles on specific topics in a local daily here in Pune, and also in some magazines in and around the area. So I thought it was someone who had read my mother’s name in one such article, had somehow come across my account on Orkut (going by the same surname.. which is rare in this part of the world) and asked if I was related to her. So I promptly replied back that “Yes, her name is Vasudha. How do you know her?”. The reply to this took me aback.. and sent me 25 years down the memory lane.. in an instant..

The person asking this was.. technically.. one of my first friends! We, at home, know her as ‘Rani’ (its a nickname), and she and her family (the Chaudhari’s) used to be our neighbors in Chinchwad, a small satellite town of Pune, the place where I was born. Obviously, these were the first people I had played with, & as mom always tells me, they were not just neighbors for her during our stay there, instead they were like an extended family! 

Being just a couple of years old then, I only have a hazy recollection of those events, but through my mom’s stories over the years I have lived those days many times! She has always praised them for being a huge support to her when my dad used to be out on long work-related tours. Also, being a lot younger than Rani and her brothers, Sanju and Raju (again, all nicknames, because that’s what I remember the most) I’ve learnt how they used to treat me more like their sibling..

As you might have guessed by now, it didn’t take much time for Rani and me to get into a conversation that night. As surprised as I was on meeting her through Orkut, I was also eager to know where she was and how everybody was doing. I learnt about how each one completed their respective educations, got married and settled down in life and I really felt nice that each one was doing good. Rani too was happy to learn that mom was hale and hearty, and told me that she always has been one of her favorite persons.

It was many years since I had met them in person, so that day it felt as if we were rewinding time. Its strange how the good news of long lost friends and relatives brings a certain amount of cheer in you. Thank you, Orkut!

The next morning I told my mother about the entire episode, and she was delighted, she almost couldn’t believe it. I told her how Sanju, Raju and Rani have settled down and are leading successful lives today. Rani’s son even has his 1st birthday coming up! It felt great to see her picture albums and through them mom & I tried to catch up on the lost years..

It almost seems a blast from the past.. or a ping from childhood. Its also strange how quickly free conversations can take place, as if you had met the person just yesterday. We have chatted quite frequently since then.

Though many abuses are regularly thrown towards social networking sites like Orkut and Facebook, it is events like these in which they prove their worth. It certainly brought people together after many years of oblivion. Technology, and the internet in particular, does make this planet a small world after all!

Friends after the war..

In sports, and also in the competitive world we live in today, winning is all that matters. Its the final result on the score sheet that counts, not how one got there. Just to be more pessimistic, second place is the first among the list of losers.

Yet, sports often brings the real individual out of a person. Though success stories and ‘who-said-what’ at sporting encounters is of academic interest to most people, some tales do live on and are passed on from one generation to the other, only to become legends and folklore. Case in the point: the origins of ‘The Ashes’ cricket series between England and Australia.

Sportsmen are seen as warriors, or rather, more like gladiators fighting it out against each other for the coveted prize, and the honour that goes with it. But there’s a human side to things which rarely comes into focus. Its based on respect for each other, which ironically is a by-product of the same competitive spirit. A stong friendship can exist even between the most bitter rivals on the field, and we have many instances in the history of sports, or even in the history of the wars the world has fought to date.

On Sunday, inside the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, we all were privileged to see that piece of history repeating itself. It was the moment when an emotional and hurt Roger Federer was consoled by the very person who had humbled him just a few minutes ago in a marathon final match at the Australian Open Tennis Grand Slam Championship. Few would argue that both have achieved a lot of success in their careers, earned a whole lot of honour and respect from the fraternity and will go on to even greater heights in the future. This is surely not the last time we have seen them slug it out on court, but its incidences like these which will be remembered long after they have bowed out from the centerstage.

Image courtesy: ‘http://www.telegraph.co.uk’

I quote Nadal’s own words here: “Sorry for today, Roger. I know how you are feeling right now. But remember that you are one of the greatest champions from history and you will go on to improve the 14 (major Grand Slam titles).”

That is humility for you, a quality that Tennis as a sport has taught Nadal. At a stage where you constantly have to be on the top of your game and face-off with the best everytime, this quality is a great asset to have. It keeps your feet grounded at all times, the main ingredient of the recipe called ‘Champion’. 

I mentioned ‘The Ashes’ a while ago, and I would like to round off the article with a similar incident which occurred after the historic 2005 Ashes test at Edgbaston. It was a series where the English reclaimed the coveted Ashes urn by defeating the might of the Australians. But it will also be remembered for the picture of Andrew Flintoff crouching beside a heartbroken Brett Lee on the pitch at the end of the match, and consoling him, amidst the crazy celebrations from the English players and supporters.

Image courtesy: ‘http://www.theage.com.au’

The following quote from R.G. Briscow made during the World War II just sums it up:

“If only Hitler and Mussolini could have a game of bowls once a week at Geneva, I feel Europe would not be as troubled as it is.”