Where is the Universe when you need it?

Given the fact that “the words of our prophets are written on subway walls”, I could not help but wonder at the fact that being directionless is something that we excel at. Imagine a situation when we look for inspiration at the Badshah of Bandstand who in his numerous “holier than thou” roles on silver screen have told us about ‘Kaynaad’ or universe conspiring to give you what you want. So like millions in the country I too believe him, irrespective of the fact that I am more eagerly waiting for ‘Rann’ than ‘My name is Khan’.

Anyway, the problem with the whole universe thing is that the universe needs a question. But Winnie the Pooh and I have had just one question that has troubled us all our lives, “What’s for breakfast?” Beyond that it has been answers, either thought through logically or irrationally. But the answers have been there. And you could fall back to 42 whenever you felt like it. The important thing is to ask the right question.

These days, “Aal izz well” seems to be the new mantra. And though I am sure that the movie is way way better than the book (which I have not read and don’t intend to either), I think the movie could just have been better if Aamir did not take the same holier than thou approach as the other Khan does. I mean, we all love to see underdogs win and we all love to see genius flourish in front of bitter adversity but then Life just isn’t fair. In life Sharman would die, Madhavan would have left his camera back home in some forgotten corner of his cupboard and Aamir would have been married with kids by the time Kareena came running. But then the movies help us forget reality, don’t they?

I also completed the long pending viewing of Rocket Singh, sometime back and it really didn’t cut any ice. While I appreciate the story of a person building an organization which promises what it does, I think it made little sense to run an operation that made little or no business sense. And as much as I appreciate Shimit Amin’s efforts and identify with the problems as shown, I am sure there is always a better way out, than starting a non sustainable business model. This is perhaps where the entrepreneurial spirit within me has taken a backseat. I still remember that once I told 2 friends who had not a clue about formatting “chill dudes. Karte karte sikh lenge yaar.” I think therein lies the difference. Today I have been trained to do risk analysis and not success planning.

Then came the question of the Muse. Guy Ritchie is a great movie maker but Conan Doyle’s spirit was crying in my dreams the other night. Sherlock Holmes was always cocky, he wasn’t ever moony. He was sarcastic, oh yes he was, but not outright pedantic. Anyway, whoever was the detective, the Good Dr. Watson made up for it. Jude Law was extremely impressive, much more than our poor apparition of Sherlock Holmes. But it was Irene Adler that caught my attention. Given that the only thing common between Sherlock Holmes and Pyaar Impossible was a man’s relationship with his muse, both made entertaining watch. And while people might lose the subtlety or the finesse, it makes sense to pause and think if the greatest wars of legends had a story of the Hero and the Muse.

The week has been good. Friends have given news that has been happy, funny and interesting. V came down from Chennai to meet a few of us. And as we discussed, I realized that for all of us, the wheels have been set in motion and the rest as they say is in the hands of Kaynaad :)

PS: Year end sentimentalities end with this post. Back to business of “Happy blogging” now.