The Story

So many a times we have stopped at traffic signals and have had beggars come up to us for money. We might also have encountered a few men telling us their sad stories and eventually the need for money. Experiences tell us to avoid these supposed con men, to ignore them and look away. The other day, waiting at a bus stand for a friend, I, with a group of friends, had a similar rendezvous.

Ignoring the guy when he first walked up to us and asked for money, we continued our wait. We didn’t turn a deaf ear though, and listened to his story with little emotion. He had traveled 850 km from his home to come to Jaipur to find a job, heeding his brothers’ advice, who lived in the city. On reaching his brothers’ address, he learnt that his brother had left the place. Stranded, he spent all of his money searching for a job. Now he had only one choice, that to go home. With a train the same night, he just wanted some money for “kharcha paani”, as he put it. The story, though far-fetched, involved us somehow. To add to it all, he pointed out his wife and son, whom he had brought along all the way from his village. We tried to cross-examine the story, trying to find a loop hole, but he seemed to have had a genuine answer to all our questions. We guided him to a police station, but he told us he had already been there and they had given him rotis, and that this was all the help the police had provided. Saying this he showed us a container filled with rotis. We had listened enough, but to believe that a man in his late twenties could be so stupid, as to bring his family along without a job, would be stupidity on our part. We contributed 40 bucks, not for the man and his story, but for the wife and the kid.

I am not sure if we did the right thing or not. Did we encourage art of con or really help out a guy in distress? I am sure of this though, it is our innate nature to be humane, and we do lend out a helping hand whenever someone, no matter who it is, touches our hearts.

Stranger than Fiction

Since I started watching TV shows, to picture myself as one of the characters has always been so fascinating. To relate to them is so easy, for one’s life seems so dull as compared to the fiction. Even my accent, jokes, gestures have somehow come to be, as they are, from beyond the screen. Enveloped in the character, seems like such a safe place to be, where you are sure that any storm will fade, and it will always be a happy ending. Characters such as Barney (How I Met Your Mother), Joey (F.R.I.E.N.D.S) and Charlie (Two and a Half Men) give us a delusion that a regular guy, even with his ups and downs, can get any lady he wants. Any guy can only dream of such a life, for it’s perfect in his eyes. He strives to suit up, do anything he learns from them, to be them. What we need to realize is that not everyone is a Casanova and more importantly, that life is stranger than fiction. The art of a different girl every night is but a fairy tale, only resulting in instability in real life. So just sit back, enjoy the show, and let the moment pass, for your life is better than fiction.

The Cheap King

When Madame Tussauds welcomed SRK, a.k.a the King of Bollywood, into the elite company, I was disappointed. His contribution to the world of cinema though noteworthy, has been monotonous in nature. Leaving out some movies like Darr or Chak De, he has been able to don one character only, that of a chocolate guy. I am not judging his talent, simply implying that his talent, like him, is old. Why do I think so lowly of Shah Rukh? It all started with a show back home. A group of Bollywood superstars, including Shah Rukh, came to town to perform a show. During the act, Shah Rukh called a lady from the audience and told her that he would do the same thing to her, which he did to Aishwarya Rai in the movie Josh. Nodding in agreement, she waited, anticipating a dance or so with the King of Khans. And what did the king do? He spat a gulp of water on her face. Shocked and humiliated, the lady walked off the stage. Even though the crowd laughed and the show carried on, the mental image of the cheap king disgusted me henceforth. Oh and why is it that he delivers movies which are blockbuster hits? It is sheer marketing. Behind the humble looking king is actually a sly-cheap-fagging human, who cares only about his own existence. My name is R@DeN, and I am not a SRK fan.

The Flash in the Pan

Ever since Roger Federer tasted success, the one roadblock that he faced every year was, and this is no revelation, the Spaniard, Rafael Nadal. The 17-year old became such a treat to watch, as he worked his way up to the #2 spot, winning four French opens. No rally was too long for him, and the opponent had no answer for his powerful forehands. Then came Wimbledon ’07, and we saw him battle out for the #1 spot, a classic five-setter match, eventually which he lost. A year later, an emphatic Nadal returned and confronted the same nerves with much more confidence, winning the Wimbledon '08. The ghosts of Nadal got to Federer and he lifted the Australian Open ‘09. As he felt happiness with tears in his eyes, Nadal set out to become the #1 player. However, as opposed to Fed-Ex’s game which is based on fluid mechanics, Nadal’s game deteriorated as his knees gave out to tendinitis. The injury caused not only physical, but a mental glitch as well. Recovering from the injury, he came back a different, a struggling Nadal. The US Open ‘09 and the Australian Open ‘10 witnessed the fall of Nadal, from a demolition machine to the guy with a limp. The world expressed its sympathy, and gave the once champion a burial in their minds, considering him just a flash in the pan. He returns from injury again though and I, a Rafael Nadal fanatic, can only hope that they are wrong. Vamos Rafa!

The Ugly Temptation

It’s just a coincidence that my first post comes to be on this date, February the 14th. It’s been 21 long years of single valentines, but that’s not the sorry part. What makes this Valentines even more disappointing than the others? The ugly temptation to call someone so special to you, who doesn’t really care anymore. The urge, though will last only for the day, is quite overwhelming. The conflict between the mind and the soul is exhausting, of which I can only hope the mind prevails. To know that the person is just a call away seems to gives all the more reason to listen to the heart. Even saying the phrase ALL IZZ WELL to yourself, doesn’t do much either. Maybe it’s the unanswered questions, maybe so many things unsaid, maybe just the thought of us. You only wish the person had stayed just a little longer, to listen to your heart. Saturated with all these thoughts, you reminisce the memories, only to sulk even more. It is at this point of saturation, that you need to remember that the person is not the same you fell in love with, that the love is gone. Realization knocks your head and you see the world beyond, the bliss.