This too...Shall Pass!!!

When the tide is so high..
hang in there..as it is about to turn.
When the road is blocked..
be wise..change the route.

When the problem seems so big..
think of a better solution.
When the Going gets so tough..
have another GO at it!!!

When life seems so unfair..
think of the best things it has showered on u...
When you know you have to fight all alone..
think of it as a One Man Show!!!

When you are suffering from a Writer's Block..
just stop thinking creative...
And pen down your own experiences...

And even after all this...
If u still feel you are going through the worst times..
Remember the quote..
"This too...shall pass."

- Dilse...
MunnaSrk

My Name Is Humanity...

And I am not an Atheist!!!

This is not a review of a movie in particular. This is a message that a movie like My Name Is Khan brings to notice. After a long wait of ten days since its release, I watched MNIK yesterday and while watching it, strangely, what inspired me the most was neither the characterization of Khan nor the effortless natural portrayal of Mandira or even the soul stirring music of the movie; but instead it was the simple message of the film that touched my heart.

The truth of the matter is that we are no longer living in a world where the time frame is divided into BC and AD, it is now more terrifyingly & realistically framed as Before and After 9/11. So why did the world change the way it did after the terrorist attack at WTC. Its because of its target being such a secure nation like the U.S and the precision with which such a horrifying plan of this magnitude had been executed that changed a whole nation's view towards the people of a certain religion. These people were then termed as the "STANIS', the Pakistanis, Afganistanis, and even some Hindustanis who were muslims.

Coming back to the movie, the Asperges syndrome of the protagonist actually helps the story unfold in its own pace as the character doesn't show emotions and doesn't even understand the common way of loving someone. Khan only knows and believes in one message, there are only two kinds of people in this world. The Good & The Bad. He believes only good things happen to good people.

He even takes each & every sentence that one says in its literal meaning. So, when his wife yells at him to "Go and meet the President and tell him My Name Is Khan and I am not a Terrorist", he doesn't understand the emotions behind such an illogical statement that was part of an emotional outburst. This innocence of Khan helps the movie roll on to an incredible "Forest Gump" like journey that initially makes the viewer feel ridiculously silly and unrealistic, but the way its been handled in the latter half of the movie deserves a thumbs up for the screenplay writer Shibani Bathija.

For instance the episodes in Wilhemina, Geogia & the one inside a mosque. The whole incident revolving around the hurricane at Wilhemina & the one thats satirically set inside a mosque where a doctor whose suppose to rescue all his patients despite the caste & creed is recruiting jihadis. Both these incidents in the movie may seem to be irrelevant for the story, but its these two incidents that not only helps Khan get closer to his goal of meeting the President, but also brings back the message of Humanity.

Ironically these two episodes show the two extremely different shades of humanity as well. One in which the government of a nation in the middle of elections, conveniently neglects the huge massacre caused by a natural calamity which in turn provokes Khan to lead a group of common people in helping their fellow citizens survive from this mass destruction. The other in which a group of jihadis gather inside the temple of god and motivate themselves on taking lives where again someone like Khan, a true Muslim takes the risk of informing about them to the FBI.

Ultimately, its the goodness and humanity of Khan that bridges him to his destination and makes his impossible dream, possible. This in turn urges each one of us to believe in his principle that if you do only good things in life, only Good will happen to you. For Khan, a person who reads the kuran, does the namaz five times a day, and believes in Islam, no religion is greater than Humanity. And that doesn't mean that one shouldn't believe in any religion or God, but to realize that...

Religion is a guide for your way of living. No matter what form of idol you worship, all of them stand for one unanimous thought..That Goodness, Faith & Love is your God.

And thats why My Name is "Humanity" And I am not an Atheist!!!

-Dilse...
 MunnaSrk

"Mascot of Cricket"

A Child Prodigy!!!

Nov 15th, 1989.

This date would have been just like any other day if it wasn't for a little boy who wore the India Cap for the first time and made his test cricket debut against the arch rivals Pakistan.

Seen here, in this picture is Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar.

He is not ready to take strike - so, with an imperious gesture of the hand, he stops Pakistan ace fast bowler Wasim Akram in his tracks. 

The ground, Karachi. The occasion, Sachin Tendulkar's Test debut.

The date, November 15th, 1989.At the time, Sachin Tendulkar was 16 years old - and already rated by the international media as the Star of the Future. 

Note the body language - indicative, not of schoolboy shyness or even nerves, but of total calm, of absolute assurance...The body language of a player aware of his abilities, and glorying in them...

Today, when he completes exactly 20 years of successful participation in World Cricket, its only his passion, determination and his hunger for the game that still keeps him going...And if Health prevails, he would love to play for his country until he loses all his senses. Its this dedication of his' that has made him the greatest of all...

The reason why many, including the ones who have played against him, agree that he is the best to have played the game at the international level, is mostly because of the fact that he played in the era that saw the change of Cricket. When he started his career, World Cricket was still owned by the greatness of Test Cricket and through his tenure as a Cricketer, the very game has itself changed so much that a player needs to rediscover himself during the course of his career. The newly invented technologies and tactics of the game were only going to make it more tougher for anyone who plays the game for this long.

But the genius that he is, he could stand the test of time. When he began his career he did not have any technology to analyze and calculate the action and ability of a bowler of the likes of Wasim Akram, Courtney Walsh, Glenn Mcgrath, Shane Warne and Muthiah Murulitharan, to name a few. And he went on to play with the same success in the times when technology had almost dominated the game where each and every bowler can analyze and study the weaknesses of a batsman.

So it is this change of Cricket that made it almost impossible for many who started to crumble towards the latter half of their cricketing careers. The ones who started as Stars of the game and the ones who promised a lot in talent began to fall apart as the guide of technology saw more than a few loop holes in their repertoire. 

But this genius went on to become a Legend, who can only be compared and criticized with other stalwarts who played the game like Viv Richards, Sunil Gavaskar, but could never draw parallels with even one of them. For sachin was a Class Apart and the only player who himself admitted that he saw most similarities of his way of batting in Sachin, was the greatest Sir Donald Bradman. 

But to have played in this era where cricket in not just played physically but also in the minds of the players, to have successfully carried the hopes and expectations of a billion people every time he goes out to play, its without a doubt that this man is not just the Legend of the game, but the Best to have ever played the game of Cricket.

From the times when he got out almost everyone in India switched off their televisions, to the times when he had the support of other fellow greats in his team like Rahul,Saurav,Anil & Laxman, he has always played with the same passion for the game. 

But I wouldn't be surprised if in this last few years of his career, Sachin starts to play more freely and dominatingly, with the talents of Viru,Yuvraj and Dhoni around in the team. If that is so, then the innigs that we all saw very recently in hyderabad against Aussies (175 of 141 balls) would just be the beginning of something very special from this great man. 

I salute this little master who stormed into the world of cricket on this very day 20 years ago and made this game even more exciting and wonderful to watch over the years. I feel proud to have born in this era as i could watch the greatest of them all play for all these years.

The Greatness in is abilities, the Humbleness in his approach and the Kindness in is character, all this makes him...

The Best there was, The Best there is...and The Best there ever be...

to have played this wonderful game of Cricket.

Dilse...

MunnaSrk

Perhaps Love...

Perhaps love is, a feeling from deep within
Or a state of mind that is so grooving
that grows and blossoms everyday
And will always stay...

Perhaps love is, so many things
that we cannot contemplate
Like pure and true feelings
Or our destiny or fate...

Perhaps love is, the unison
Of two people who are one
Dependent to each other
and promising to stay together
from dawn to the setting sun...

Perhaps love is, almost everything
that makes us to crave
even for things that can never be
from the cradle to the grave...

Perhaps love is, the knot that binds
two different set of minds
through life and death as well
to meet again beyond there lifetime
Be it in heaven or in hell...

Perhaps love can, find us one day
and make us feel special everyday
Perhaps love can, explain to us now
and give reason to believe in destiny
And someday soon, there will be love
For you, and also for me...

Dilse...
MunnaSrk


PS: Inspired from my readings of many quotes,short stories and poems on the web that sow the seeds of imagination and creativity in me.

The DASAVATARAM Effect..!!!

A Movie that brought together Science & Mythology...

When i say...Dasavataram, the movie brought back the real facts of physics and blended the fields of science and mythology..i mean that to the core..i believe u will agree to my point completely once u read through this article...

Well when i came out of the theatre after watching this movie..i knew i was not gonna write a review on this flick..as i felt it deserved more than just a mere review which says if its GOOD or BAD...but i thought i had to do something more to this technical and cinematic brilliance which was served with as much entertainment values as possible...This in turn meant that i would have to indulge in serious thoughts and research taking my valuable time..and should eventually come up with what all i wanted to tell in detail about the theory behind this movie and its whole plot..and a few of those which the story teller(Dr.Kamal Haasan) might have missed out telling in detail, may be 'coz he didn't want to go to the core of physics and dive away the point of entertainment.

So here we go...first of all..One thing we had noticed is why people didn't get the real subtext of the movie and the reason for the various roles(as many as ten) and hence the title.

I felt if you knew the real Dasavatarams of Lord Vishnu and their characters you can appreciate the script more. So, this is a way of interpreting the 10 roles...

Starting with the best adapted role:

1. Krishna avatar - Vincent Poovaraghavan
Lord krishna is actually a dalit, he is dark-skinned [shyamalam]. He saved draupadi when she was being violated and he was the actual diplomat in mahabharatham. Lord krishna dies of an arrow striking his lower leg. Now look at how vincent was introduced.. he appears when asin is about to be molested and he saves her like draupadi. Vincent is the dalit diplomat, fights for land issue [soil issue to be exact] and dies from the metal rod striking his leg.

2. Balarama avatar - Balram naidu
This is an easy given. as the name suggests and the role personifies you can easily get it.

3. Mathsya avatar - Rangaraja nambi
Nambi is thrown into water in an act of trying to save lord from being thrown into sea, though vainly. I guess thats more than enough for us to recognize this avatar.

4. Koorma avatar - Bush
This is the most loose adaptation that couldn't be clearly comprehended. But if you look at the real koorma avatar, the lord is the turtle/tortoise that helps in stirring the ksheera sagara and bringing out the amruth. This essentially creates war among the devas and asuras. Similarly today Bush facilitates war between you know whom all?? May be Kamal also indicates that this avatar is a bit dumb like the tortoise.

5. Varaha avatar - Krishnaveni paatti
During the mukunda song, krishnaveni paatti does varaha avatar in the shadow puppetry. The frame freezes on it for a second. there is the clue. Moreover, in varaha avatar lord actually hides earth so as to protect life forms. Here too krishnaveni hides the germs - life form inside the statue so as to protect.

6. Vamana avatar - Kalifulla khan
remember in vamana avatar, lord vishnu takes the vishvaroopa, that is the giant form! Hence the giant kalifulla here symbolises vamana avatar.

7. Parasurama avatar - Christian Fletcher
Parasurama is actually on an angry killing spree and killed 21 generations of the particular kshatriya vamsa. Hence the real KILLER. Guess what thats what our Fletcher is! He comes around with the gun [modern upgrade for axe] and kills everyone around.

8. Narasimha avatar - Shingen Narahashi
first of all the name itself is a play on the words singam [means lion in tamil] and narasimha [the avatar being symbolised]. Lord Narasimha manifests himelf to kill the bad guy and he also teaches prahaladha. In the movie, he shows up to kill the killer fletcher! and is also a teacher.. Lord Narasimha had to kill the asura with bare hands and hence the martial arts exponent here.. get it?

9. Rama avatar - Avatar Singh
Lord Rama stands for the one man one woman maxim, kind of symbolising true love.. Here Avatar portrays that spirit by saying that he loves his woman more than anything and wants to live for her.

10. Kalki avatar - Govindaraj Ramasamy
As you know, the hero in kaliyug can be none other than the Kalki avatar!!!

Now, i hope all the doubts about who was who in the movie is pretty clear..now the most asked question by almost everyone...was why the need of these 10 roles..here comes the real explanation to that..which is relevant to the story and the entire plot which Kamal is trying to portray...

Dasavatharam is a brilliant and bold effort which talks about the physics of Karma,Chaos theory, Butterfly Effect and Cycle of life.

Chaos Theory:
In simple terms,Consider this example:
A man Mr.A is sleeping inside his car which is parked in the parking lot of a big shop.
Suddenly another man Mr.B wakes him up and asks for 25 cents.
Mr.A runs his hand through his pockets (for say few secs less than a minute and gives him the coin). Mr.B thanks him and walks towards the shop and suddenly notices a driver, trying to back off his car is just about to hit another car(near the entrance of the shop) which is stationary.
So he shouts"hey..hey ..stop the car" and saves the two cars from any damage.
Now,if Mr.A had said"Sorry I dont have any change" to Mr.B,then B would have probably gone to another person to ask for money and the accident could have been unavoidable .
So A was in a way reponsible to the change in life patterns of B and the owners of the 2 cars.
This is chaos theory.

Now about the theory being depicted in the plot of the movie...it talks about this chaos theory by showing how different characters are responsible for the change in life patern of scientist Govind and goes a step further by showing how Govind is reponsible for the change in life patterns of these characters (For instance Avtaar singh is cured of cancer because of Fletcher who comes into picture because of govind.If not for them, he would have undergone the operation and would have never been able to sing for the rest of his life.
Similarly Khalifulla khan and the other 200 people wouldnt have been alive if they were not asked to stay in the mosque for investigation regarding govind's case). All this has been beautifully captured in the movie.So there is no question of unwanted extra roles or anything
of that sort.All the 10 characters are well etched and very important!!!

Physics of Karma:
Next, coming to the Physics of KARMA...Dasavataram also talks about it clearly.
What exactly is it?
Example:
You are watching a boxing match.Both are deadly fighters.You are thoroughly entertained while watching 10 rounds of gory violence.
Then few days later you see two of your very close friends fighting over an issue.
The fight goes to the next level where they start hitting each other with say cricket bats.
This is violence too.But you can definitely not find it entertaining this time.
Your instinct would be to stop the fight.
This shows that you are bound to experience something equal and opposite (as in physics)to what you experience now , either immediately,or in the near future.
What if you suddenly get to die before experiencing the effects of your action?
Well,Thats where life cycle comes in and you will experience the effect in your next birth.
This is what Karma is about.
You have the free will to do what you want.But the effects are bound to follow you.

Dasavataram deals with this brilliantly.
Assuming Govind is the rebirth of Nambi, they are totally the opposites. Nambi dies having faith in god,but Govind is an atheist. So it balances the so called Karma equation.
This also applies to asin(though the other way round) 12th century asin is ready to give up her belief in Lord Vishnu for the sake of her husband. But andal is a stonch believer in god who always tries to safeguard the statue.

Butterfly Effect:
It is the most important component of a chaotic system.Basically,small perturbations results in amplifications which completely destroys the original nature of the system and makes prediction impossible.If a butterfly flaps its wings in Africa,it could result in a cyclone in USA.(Mark the word "COULD")
The Tsunami can be thought of as the butterfly effect of the statue that was drowned in the 12th century, or a natural occurence that resulted in a miracle by saving millions of lives or whatever.

Cycle of Life...
It also implies that it made govind and andal reunite in front of the same statue where they were seperated 800 years back!! Finally, Dasavatharam says life is nothing but a cycle.You are bound to experience the effects of your actions either now, or in the future,or in your next birth.
You are provided with the free will to do what you want with your current life. But your actions will not only affect you but also the peolpe around you resulting in a butterfly effect which might lead to unbelievable consequences in some part of the world. You have to experience the effects for what you have caused. Until then life keeps repeating like a cycle.

Well, as for me...with the never ending researches done by many people around the world including myself, who became fond of the movie and its thought of life cycle in relation to physics in general, this was a great journey which took me sometime to come in terms with the "ACTUAL" physics which i was pointing to...and then i could mingle with many people indirectly who were involved in their own research as much as i was...ultimately..i believe i have done justice to this movie and brought to notice what exactly was suppose to be brought to the limelight with this Epic movie, DASAVATARAM...It amazes me the way it clubs the Physics, the Cycle of Life..all of it with our own Dus Avatars of Lord Vishnu...I personally believe this is a Great venture by all means...and deserves a Standing Ovation, if not for the technical brilliance..but for the sheer idea and thought of it.

Take a Bow...The Legend...Dr.Kamal Haasan..for trying to churn out something as inspiring as this by blending the field of Science and Mythology...and coming out with more than satisfactory results...and in flying colours...

As long as Mankind stays...the Great Mythology of Lord Vishnu and his DASAVATARAM will also stay..and this article of mine, i believe has in some way..just made it more clear and Believable.

-Dilse...
MunnaSrk