What a movie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is one of those movies you finish watching without any interruptions and then just silence all the voices in your head and just think about LIFE.
Sure, the taking is similar to the movie "Forest Gump", but this movie gives a different angle of looking at life.
Brad Pitt as always is an amazing actor. To this point I have always liked him for his looks and his childish eyes. But now I like him more because of his acting in this movie. Of course, I did not miss the scene with him on the bike and no one else could ever look like that :-) .
And the writer F.Scott Fitzgerald who had written the original short story, kudos to him for looking at life in different way and the director David Fincher and the other writers for all their efforts in bringing it to the screen.
I certainly walked out of the movie thinking to my self, draining all the voices in and around me and checking to make sure I was living my life to the fullest.
Destiny
Serendipity - This is the the nth time I have seen this movie. Every single time I am so moved by it becuase I believe in DESTINY.
Every one says I have always carved my own path in life. But I feel that it is destiny that has made me do that. I have struggled hard for every single achievement in my life. I have learnt lots of lessons and I know I have more to learn.
One thing I have realized is that, no matter how hard I struggled, the end result came to me only after I accepted everything - the highs and the lows of the struggle. It's kind of like what happens in the movie "Finding Nemo" - Marlin and Dori go through all the struggle of finding their way to the waters of Australia to find Nemo and when the whale swallows them, Dori says "I think we should give up" and they just fall into where they have to be. :) . Its like that for me.
And that I believe is DESTINY - you put in all the effort you possibly can and more, and then accept everything from that point on.
Every one says I have always carved my own path in life. But I feel that it is destiny that has made me do that. I have struggled hard for every single achievement in my life. I have learnt lots of lessons and I know I have more to learn.
One thing I have realized is that, no matter how hard I struggled, the end result came to me only after I accepted everything - the highs and the lows of the struggle. It's kind of like what happens in the movie "Finding Nemo" - Marlin and Dori go through all the struggle of finding their way to the waters of Australia to find Nemo and when the whale swallows them, Dori says "I think we should give up" and they just fall into where they have to be. :) . Its like that for me.
And that I believe is DESTINY - you put in all the effort you possibly can and more, and then accept everything from that point on.
Mumbai
The attacks in Mumbai.....I have nothing new to say about this. The events have rendered me speechless along with the rest of India. There is a fire inside me, consuming me, asking me what I am doing about this. The answer is "nothing". What can I do? I am here in far-off USA. But that is not really true. There must be something I can do.
The pictures and videos I see rip my heart out. How can this happen in my India? Multiple attacks in just one year? How did we let it come to this?
Did the concerned departments not act on the information they received? There must have been at least one person among all the millions living in Mumbai who noticed these terrorists and thought "hmmmm...something is off". I can't believe that there was no one. If only someone took enough responsibility to alert the police. If not all, at least a few lives could have been saved.
Many questions arise......Is it an intelligence failure? Is it the failure of the Navy? Is it a failure of the hotel security? There is no blame game to be played here. It is a failure of the Indian system as a whole. And the reason for it, all of us are so caught up in just "surviving life" not just "living life".
How pitiful.....
The pictures and videos I see rip my heart out. How can this happen in my India? Multiple attacks in just one year? How did we let it come to this?
Did the concerned departments not act on the information they received? There must have been at least one person among all the millions living in Mumbai who noticed these terrorists and thought "hmmmm...something is off". I can't believe that there was no one. If only someone took enough responsibility to alert the police. If not all, at least a few lives could have been saved.
Many questions arise......Is it an intelligence failure? Is it the failure of the Navy? Is it a failure of the hotel security? There is no blame game to be played here. It is a failure of the Indian system as a whole. And the reason for it, all of us are so caught up in just "surviving life" not just "living life".
How pitiful.....
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
This is one of the most memorable books I have read. No suspense, no thrills just a story that is almost real.
Thanks to my friend who lent me this book. I saw the movie. But that did not have the effect this book had on me (no surprise there....). I was taken into a different world with the description of the details of the white paint on the face, the details of the kimono, the patience, the longing....everything.
The thing that struck me most - when chiyo actually realizes that she cannot become a geisha. She has to be a geisha. What a difference a word makes....becoming vs being. As I read through the sentence, I had my "Aha!!!!" moment. I realized this is the difference between the things you do well and the things you excel at. I realized, being makes all the difference.
"To be a geisha is to be judged as a moving piece of art". How many people can claim that? As much as I don't support the manner in which children are sold into the okiyas, I cannot help but be amazed at this thought.
What memorable quotes the book has......
Adversity is like a strong wind. I don't mean it holds us back from places we might otherwise go.It tears away from us all but the things that cannot be torn, so that we see ourselves as we really are and not merely as we might like to be.--------- How true.....
I don't think any of us can speak frankly about pain until we are no longer enduring it.--------dare to say "No" to that? I wouldn't. Even from the few years I have been in this world, I know it is true.
I have read this only once so far but I want to read it again. But then I really don't want the magic to go away. So I might not read it again :-) . May be I will just keep it on my bookshelf and recall the magic whenever I look at it.
Thanks to my friend who lent me this book. I saw the movie. But that did not have the effect this book had on me (no surprise there....). I was taken into a different world with the description of the details of the white paint on the face, the details of the kimono, the patience, the longing....everything.
The thing that struck me most - when chiyo actually realizes that she cannot become a geisha. She has to be a geisha. What a difference a word makes....becoming vs being. As I read through the sentence, I had my "Aha!!!!" moment. I realized this is the difference between the things you do well and the things you excel at. I realized, being makes all the difference.
"To be a geisha is to be judged as a moving piece of art". How many people can claim that? As much as I don't support the manner in which children are sold into the okiyas, I cannot help but be amazed at this thought.
What memorable quotes the book has......
Adversity is like a strong wind. I don't mean it holds us back from places we might otherwise go.It tears away from us all but the things that cannot be torn, so that we see ourselves as we really are and not merely as we might like to be.--------- How true.....
I don't think any of us can speak frankly about pain until we are no longer enduring it.--------dare to say "No" to that? I wouldn't. Even from the few years I have been in this world, I know it is true.
I have read this only once so far but I want to read it again. But then I really don't want the magic to go away. So I might not read it again :-) . May be I will just keep it on my bookshelf and recall the magic whenever I look at it.
Moment's Indulgence
I ask for a moment's indulgence to sit by thy side.
The works that I have in hand I will finish afterwards.
Away from the sight of thy face my heart knows no rest nor respite,
and my work becomes an endless toil in a shoreless sea of toil.
Today the summer has come at my window with its sighs and murmurs; and
the bees are plying their minstrelsy at the court of the flowering grove.
Now it is time to sit quite, face to face with thee, and to sing
dedication of life in this silent and overflowing leisure.
-Ravindranath Tagore
The works that I have in hand I will finish afterwards.
Away from the sight of thy face my heart knows no rest nor respite,
and my work becomes an endless toil in a shoreless sea of toil.
Today the summer has come at my window with its sighs and murmurs; and
the bees are plying their minstrelsy at the court of the flowering grove.
Now it is time to sit quite, face to face with thee, and to sing
dedication of life in this silent and overflowing leisure.
-Ravindranath Tagore
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