Chak De India!!

It’s 1 at night and I have nothing to do. At home and comfy, I have the option to sleep obviously, but all the days of the last semester have perhaps taken their toll on my sleep glands (I know there is no such thing). So I sit here, chatting away, when even the chat friends disappear one by one, busied by their own tasks. One chat friend after ridiculing my team (meaning the football team I support) goes to prepare for his early morning presentation of some case. The other says be right back and forgets to come back after half an hour, then another bids adieu as his mom calls him for some late night chore. And so I sit here. Nothing particular to do. I therefore engage in this activity called blogging that some of my friends call atrocious (by the fact that I am not that good at it). By I believe that practice makes perfect or its increases the standard of work at the least. It’s part of the “learning curve” as we say in management jargon.

So my topic of today’s effort is a movie called “Chak De India”. A cheesy name tag I thought at first. The songs were uninspiring when they came out and the promos were less than convincing. Usually I give such movies a miss. But this time I am glad that I went along with my friends for a screening. And what a movie it turned out to be. More inspirational than most Hollywood movies I have seen (yes I set Hollywood movie as the benchmark, don’t kill me for that). And yet the movie was enjoyable. Rarely have I seen such good acting performances from a bunch of nobodies. The do the job perfectly. The reason I am writing about this movie today (a full fifteen days after I first watched it) is because I went and saw it on the big screen again today, this time with my parents. The motivation for me to go and watch it for the umpteenth time (I saw it umpteenth-2 times on the laptop) was to show it to my parents and revel as they enjoyed it. Somehow, the fact that they enjoy something makes me even happier. So off I went with them, driving like mad, jumping queues (which was justified as I had pre-booked the tickets and just had to collect them) much to the annoyance of the people standing in the queue for long, just so that they would not miss the opening.

As I went through the emotion of watching the movie again, I saw many subtle points that I had missed on my previous viewing. And it was a whole new experience. Where the last time the theatre was silent right through the movie, this time, there were peals of laughter (many a time at inopportune instances which was irritating), and genuine clapping when the climax of the movie was revealed. I would say this has been a much better movie experience than the last time around (a large Pepsi and butter popcorn certainly helped the matter). And now that the spectacle is over, I reflect on some of the most powerful scenes that I have seen in Hindi movies for a long time. Like the one where the men’s hockey team salutes the women’s team for their gutsy performance against them, or the scene where little Komal Chautala passes the ball to her arch rival (in terms of goals scored that is) Preeti for her to slot home the equalizer in the final stages of the world cup final match against Australia. Great movie, great background music (including the tracks that appeared so cacophonous when listened to before I saw the movie); I guess this should surely get its star cast a host of awards at the annual film festivals. Perhaps this movie will make it to the Oscars as well. But then win it will surely not, because the emotion that egresses our hearts when we see the females fight it out against all odds and against a male chauvinist society like India’s will not be appreciated fully by the judges coming from contrasting cultures. But whether it reaches the Oscars or not or whether it is even considered or not, I must say that it has been a pleasure watching the movie, and is certainly one of the classics that I have seen in the past year.

IIM-L : Analysis Part 1

All through my stay here, i have come across people of diversity that has enabled me to grasp the real meaning of the word. And when i say diversity, i mean a diversity of attitudes. Here is the documentation of a few such attitudes:

1. People who live in a superiority complex. Every action of theirs revolves around the single objective of maintaining superiority. And that need not always be a bad thing. It adds within a fire always to win and the seeds of a never-say-die attitude are sown. Yet these people also live in a fool's paradise. Being good in one field is not good enough and they want ( and not aspire ) to be known as the authority in all fields. And this sometimes gives rise to a i-am-the-best syndrome in situation where clearly the person is not. Such people also desire to be praised and hence talk a lot about themselves.

2. People who have a single minded focus on a task at hand and will try and fulfill it by all means possible. Such types put in an inordinate amount of effort often without a corresponding result. But try they always do. People like these often skip parties and jaunts with friends to study. The fun of being here is lost on them. People like these sometimes irritate people like us (and i will not describe my type ) by submitting work when no-one else has done it. They become stressed by academic activities which also form the majority of their discussions.

3. Then there are the i-do-not-care type. And these type scare me the most, especially when they are part of my assignment team. i shudder to think what kind of performance would they put up in companies when taking up responsibilities is as alien a concept to them as any.

4. The genuine studs, and there are a few of such people around. Their minds work in a different stratosphere and is as sharp as a needle. They might appear to be laggards, often missing classes for no ostensible reasons, sleep all day and still be groggy when they wake up but when it comes to decision making, they present an angle many would never have fathomed. Clarity of thought is evidenced in their arguments which are mostly foolproof. They garner a lot of respect due to these god gifted abilities and generally don't squabble over such insignificant things as marks.

Then there are many many more, but then it's time now for me to wind up this part and indulge in an activity that i have come to consider the most important in any MBA's life -- watching movies.