About Hollywood Movies and Indian Remakes ..

When I today sat to see the new Movie ‘ Dasvidania ‘ ,the very first scene reminded me of the Hollywood classic “ The Bucket List “ . My first reaction was to leave the movie as I thought there is no point watching another Hollywood remake, but as watched it for some time, I really liked the movie.

The plot of the movie has some inspiration from the Bucket list where two dying man forms there wish list and planned to enjoy their life before the D day. The star cast may not have the brilliance of Morgan Freeman or Jack Nicholson but I enjoyed the movie more than the Bucket list due to some obvious reasons. The main reason of it being something I can relate to , something which I see every day , something which is not copied and something which had lot of meaning.

It really feels good to see young Indian Directors coming up with fresh thoughts and making some meaningful cinema but the agony remains that people still want to see the old boring plots with no room for creativity and thinking. 

The movies like ‘Wednesday’ or ‘Dasvidania’ may not be doing very good on box office as majority of the people still want to see the likes of ‘Om Shanti Om’ but the things are changing for the good and it’s just the matter of time before people start appreciating the change.

About victories and defeats ..

Life is full of constant up and down , a sine curve will be a ideal definition of how God has planned our lives. Its full of pleasant surprises and disgusting shocks. 

At time one will feel that he is on top of the world , nobody can compete with him , he has got all the things to succeed and at times one feel that how disgusting the life is , and one is the bloody biggest looser in the world . This is the way I feel life is for most of us.

I think the biggest lesson I’ve learned in my life is to be “ Humble in my victories and graceful in my defeats “ , as I know I may loose at times even when I had put my best efforts and at times I may win even when I have not worked even half as good as others . The rule of averages is very clearly fits for glories in life, there are very few people who always win and there are very few people who always loose. 

Its very easy to curse your luck or blame others for your hard times in case of failure and its very easy to go overboard and announce yourself as the ultimate winner when you achieve something big , but the real gentleman are the people who stay in control and stay humble in their victories and graceful in their defeats .

The Art of Living ...

Yesterday we had the guest lecture session of Mr Khursheed Batliwala , popularly known as Bawa , He holds a masters degree from IIT Bombay and now a senior teacher at Art of Living , relaxing mind for people across the world including likes of Harvard’s and MITs . 

He Shared lot of great thoughts on stress management, anger management , Entrepreneurship etc . I am sharing most of them here as it might be useful for everyone.

1. Anger and Regret comes from the past, fear and anxiety comes from thinking about future, Anger heats up the body, anxiety makes the body cold , our thoughts constantly travel in past and future , which causes stress . Its not the job which is stressful , its our thought process . He gave the ‘ Samosa’ analogy and told us that how this heating and cooling can spoil the samosa.

2. Bawa told us that there is no point analysisng your past , its like a garbage cane , no body analyzes their garbage , so Don’t try to manage anger or stress , just eliminate them .

3. Anger is just the emotion which shows our helplessness , when we cant do anything , we should try to postpone the anger like we postpone to propose love.

4. Meditation improves your efficiency , Gandhi ji use to meditate regularly , he once said “ Today I’m so busy , I don’t have time to meditate for one hour , I’ve to do it for 2 hours . It is a process to improve your efficiency .He told us not to use books for learning meditation.

5. Don’t feel bad about loosing out , defeats , it’s the process . Winner is a person who keeps failing until he succeeds . Give yourself the permission to fail.

6. Try to do difficult and different things. Have the guts to face failures.

7. Entrepreneurship should be the aim of all the young professional, we have such great scope. Your parents might fret now, but after the end of 4-5 years they will feel very proud of you .

8. Don’t compromise your dream due to losers opinion about your venture. Most of Bawa’s college seniors told him that “those 2 years of college were the best days of their life “ , why should one do a job which won’t even give them happiness . We should not let our educational qualification decide our choice of our career.

9. 1 love failure and one professional failure is a must for very one in student life so that he or she learns from it. 

Art of living runs several short term courses all over India , one can very easily benefit out of it .

Perfect Farewell to the Prince of Kolkata ..

India crushing Australia 2-0 is the perfect farewell to our cricket hero Saurav Dada. His remarkable career came to an end today and I’m sure his fan will miss his energy and exuberance on and off the cricket field.

On his day dada was the sweetest timer of the ball, he can rip the fast bowling apart to all sides of the field and will hit more sixes than fours of the spinners. He along with Sachin gave us the most exciting starts in one day matches and won countless matches on their own. England always brought best from the cricketer, be it the century debut at lords where he mesmerized every one with his class, be it the finals of the Netwest trophy where he took off his Shirt to show the world that we can also do it if provoked or be it India reaching finals of the world Cup under his leadership.

Cricket is known by Individuals ,Ganguly was the real character , emotional , vocal and ready to take all kinds of leadership roles .

It was Gavaskar who brought dignity to Indian cricket when English Press commented “ Indians can now play Fast Bowling “ ,It was Kapil who brought respect to Indian cricket when the cricket giants said “ Indians can now bowl Fast Bowling ‘ and it is Ganguly who brought the fighting spirit and aggression to Indian cricket and every one said “ Indians can answer your queries on field now in the language you ask them “ . He was the fighter, and he made it a point that the team plays aggressive cricket under his leadership. And his contribution to the Indian cricket will be remembered forever

Threat or Opportunity

The economic slowdown has engulfed the whole world in a matter of just 6-8 months. It has created a cause of concern among students passing out this year from engineering and business schools . The scenario which was looking very conducive just a year back has totally changed today. Many of my friends here, who have come leaving their high paying jobs in search of better career opportunities and now are in threat of getting reduced salaries even after 2 years of hard work and training. The recessionary scenario which has caused huge layoffs is giving sleepless nights to thousands of people.

I think this scenario is not a threat to the young professional but a great opportunity. There is a old saying that when God closes one door he opens several other doors for us. One of the best opportunity available now for young ambitious graduates is to start their own venture. Making their own dream a reality. Its like becoming the lord of our own destiny. In the internet enabled world today it is much easy to start a venture than it used to be 5-10 years before. But the Indian mindset makes us thinks of going for secured jobs rather than thinking about taking calculated risks .Lot of people think that there are lot of hassles and risks involved in this kind of initiative. You can lose the high paying job , the capital invested and even your reputation . I think these are all just lame excuses , The truth is that it does not require money , it does not need a great brain and it does not even require a great idea to be a Entrepreneur , what it needs is shear GUTS . The risk taking ability and the degree of passion defines any Entrepreneur. When someone asked Mr. Sunil Handa, Professor of IIMA that he is not getting good ideas about the business venture he wants to start, he said “Quit your job and sit for 10 days at your home and than see how the ideas starts hitting you “. Even in the bestselling book ‘Rich Dad Poor Dad ‘ Robert Kiyosaki says “A job is only a short-term solution to a long-term problem “ . The message is loud and clear, it is just the test of our nerves , patience and willpower.

As per my understanding this is the ideal time to start a venture as the opportunity cost is very low. The salaries and job profiles are already on decline, a person is not loosing much when he quits his job. Infact we can make a mental excuse of it that the job is not good enough for us to devote our time. The credit crunch might reduce the financing options for the Entrepreneur but it is better than the scenarios before . Its just a matter of decision to take on the next challenge … I mean the next opportunity.