RDB

I watched RDB a couple of weeks ago and the effect still lingers. It was an ordinary story in the beginning depicting the care free genX of today's India. The easy going, cop-bribing, rough-riding, careless youth whom we find by the dozen in colleges today. I thought that was it. This is another DCH kind of flick where the protagonists finally come of age in the climax. I wasn't aware of the story line before I went to see the movie. What followed later on was quite a surprise and the movie during the later phases seemed quite a handful to handle, emotionally.

Every gang in college will have its own DJ, its own patriot (one who wants to join army or do other kinds of greater things), its own Sukhi (always after girls) and the financier (a rich kid who funds the operations). The beauty of RDB lies in the fact that the story took some turns that brings the protagonists face to face with reality. From the initial "System is rotten and nothing can be done" to "We have to do something", the characters under go a sea of change. It made me think as how these carefree youth could bring themselves to do those deeds that they have done! It was something which I would classify as "some one in the right mind would never do". It made me re evaluate decisions that I have made in my life.

As the British jailer in the movie would say "Some would go to their deaths screaming, Some would face their deaths in silence ... and then I met the third kind". The third kind - those who go to their deaths smiling, mocking at death itself. The protagonists in the movie might not have actually thought they would meet such a fate when they embarked upon that venture. I actually think that it was the logical ending. They matured from "Yeh nahi badalegaa" to "Hum iss desh ko badalenge". The final few minutes were heart-wrenching. Even in those last few emotionally heavy minutes the director elicits a few laughs from the audience through the dialogues mouthed by the character of DJ. At the end of it all the director depicted that a flame has been lit in the hearts of young India because of the sacrifice.

Let us think for a moment that the story was real. Had I been one of them would I have given such a sacrifice? Would the flame have endured even a single day in the hearts of the people today? How many times do we think that we need to change the system and then fall into the same complacent mode again? Public memory is short lived. Agitations are no longer the page 1 stuff unless they are backed by some political big wigs with vested interests. Being one among the current generation I would think not twice but "n" times before committing such a sacrifice because I know that public would soon forget all that was done and the ends would not have been achieved whatever may be the means whether - just or unjust, violent or non-violent! People might remember me but the flame I have lit through my sacrifice would have long been extinguished probably just after hours of my death and people become complacent again. They were just woken up only be lulled into sleep again.

Note: Aamir should be given a pat on the back for giving a relatively unknown actor from south India, Siddharth, equal footage with him. He accorded the same respect to Toby Stephens(Capt. William Gordon) in Mangal Pandey too.

Why stock markets crashed?

The Indian stock exchange suffered the biggest ever intra-day decline after "Black Monday" in 2005, yesterday. Any guesses as to why? Some say it was the selling pressure that brought the otherwise bullish market down. But to quote the correct reason - Yes, yours truly has entered the stock market ... Make way for the Big Bull :) I have bought quite a few shares yesterday. no wonder the market crashed.

My noble steed

How many times did I yearn to have a fifth gear on the F2 ... Lacking another gear is like shackling my spirit from roaming free and preventing me from talking with the wind. I was finally released from the four-gear bondage for the first time in my life, all thanks to my brother! Unlike the thumping noise of other bikes in its class, mine is the most silent and graceful. The smoothest ride I have ever experienced. The pot-holed Pune roads seem like a thing of the distant past owing to its superior suspension. I feel proud when people give a second gaze to when I take my red stallion out for a ride. I know deep down inside my heart that my noble steed would carry me far and for long ... I have wings now. Iam proud to have become the "wing-rider".

Noun: Unicorn <'yooni'korn>

An imaginary creature represented as a white horse with a long horn growing from its forehead. The horn is supposed to be an elixir.

RDB

Seldom do we get an opportunity to watch movies in the mould of Rang De Basanti. A movie so different that nothing like has ever been shot in Indian cinema. A movie that made me think. I wanted to become an IAS/IPS officer, change the system. I was zealous at that point of time. Dreaming big about making big. Making big meant cracking the civil services then. I was idealistic. Something somewhere down the line went drastically wrong and here Iam gathering a paunch sitting all day long in a multi billion dollar software company. Democracy is the last thing I bother about. The voter identity card gathers dust serving just as another means to prove that I reside there. It has been six years and I am yet to cast my maiden vote in any form of election be it general or local body! I don't mind bribing RTOs or Traffic cops or for that matter any other Sarkaari Karmchaari to get things done. I keep thinking of ways to get away with minimum amount of income tax. Scams don't shock me anymore. Video piracy is none of my business as long as the print I brought on rent from the local video store is good. I no longer buy an audio CD because I get mp3s for download either on the net or borrow it from my friends. Long gone are the days when I used to go to the nearest flag hoisting site to salute the flag on R-Day and I-Day. Eons of geological time has passed since I sang Vandemaataram or Janaganamana! All I bother about these days is the pay cheque that gets credited in my bank account at the end of the month. All the patriotism I have swells up only during special occassions only to die the instant the emotions recede. Is is just me who turned like this? Or are the entire genX of India so? When have we,the new face of modern India turn so selfish? I think we need an explosion, something so drastic so as to shake us out of our inertia. If not we will be so used to watching "tamaashaa" that we will be rendered so powerless even to defend our own families let alone the country!