1. Patience.

Last week, I celebrated my first anniversary of blogging. Nonetheless, I have been writing since December 2006 but my first post was published on May 17, 2007.

In this one year long journey, I have composed 41 posts. I never knew in one year I would write so much. I always dreamt of publishing a book for myself. After a mere 14 months of writing, I published a book which had my name as an author.

I would always be pretty my impatient in life. I would always feel, I should achieve the target in no time. Either I wanted everything rapidly or I didn’t want it. My focus would always be on the result. This resulted in lack of concentration on the road towards the destination. Hence, I would tend to give up. Once I would give up, I would happily accept that this is not what I am supposed to do and so it’s good that I gave up. Had it been that I would have continued to carry on; I would have never reached the destination and ultimately would have wasted the time walking.

Whenever I have achieved something in life, I would look back and visualize my entire journey. I could see that I started from no where and have reached somewhere. When I had actually started, I certainly had a target in my mind and also a determination of achieving that target. However, I would have just set my focus on the current step. At the milestone, I would have started working on the next one. In other words, I can say that the main target was forked into smaller targets.

One thing I realize here is all this have always happened only with an objective or survival or a fear of insecurity. Whatever I feel I have achieved was with a firm thinking that if I don’t accomplish this, how will I earn the bread for my living? Let it be education, higher studies, job, investments, etc. I have always been patient for these things.

What about those things in life which I always want to do but somehow they are not in the mandatory list? For all such things, I certainly have a liking to achieve them but either it should be quick or it should come to me with hardly any efforts required. Somehow, for such things I don’t believe in the theory of brick by brick building the house. For all such things that pop up in my mind as a result of some kind of influence, I always want to experience the result instantly. If I am influenced by a sports bike, I want to see it parked outside my apartment in a few hours. If I am influenced by some one playing guitar, I want to see myself on a stage as a guitarist instantly. This is no dream. Hence, it doesn’t happen in reality which results in giving up.

Can I not feel that these things are also vital for my survival? Can I not set up my game plan? Can I not have that patience of going thru the milestones? Let me patiently ask my self and wait for the replies coming from within.

2. Execution.

I would always crib about my busy schedule. In spite of having scope of creating time, I would program my mind saying - I don't have time. This would usually happen when I wanted to procrastinate or put the task on lower priority. I would overlook the scope. On one hand, I would say - I want to do a lot of things in my life and on the other, I would crib about not having time. Also, Did I really have the time to enjoy all the leisurely things I possessed or was I just left with the pride of possessing them? I had programmed my mind to fool myself. Ironically, I didn't have time to create a life which is nothing but a collection of time units.

Each day, I would get 86400 seconds of life. This was the capital. How would I invest it? 1/3rd in sleep - dreaming and relaxing, 1/3rd in earning bread and the rest 1/3rd would be variable. Generally, it would be spent in commuting, eating, extra-working, day dreaming, health concerns, establishing/maintaining relations, arguments, disputes and the list continues. What I really wanted is to spend time with family, friends and above all, myself. Myself, in the sense, to do all the things I always really wanted to. To create an extraordinary future, present was the execution time. An expectation of sudden change from ordinary to extraordinary would be just another foolish thought. Each of the 28800 seconds (the remaining 1/3rd) was required to be invested wisely with a purpose of creating an extraordinary life.

Goal-setting was the primary key for the wise investment. I wanted to learn a lot of things - dance, swimming, meditation. Besides, I wanted to read, write, and work-out on regular basis. I started with categorizing the goals as short-term (< 8 months), mid-term (< 2 years), long-term (< 5 years) and dream (< death). I created a list of goals and put them below either short, mid or long term. The point to be noted here is no matter what category the goal falls into, the implementation time would begin NOW. It's not that the mid-term goal will start only after the accomplishment of short-term goal. At first place, the listing of goals was a difficult task as there were many things I had sometime thought of doing and thereafter they were out of my mind. I wanted to dig and rediscover them. I would like to pen down a list which might help in the rediscovery.

Pursuing further studies.
Writing a book.
Composing poems.
Playing musical instruments.
Learning martial arts.
Singing.
Designing jewelry.
Sports.
Conducting trainings.
Public speaking.
Trekking.
Movie making.
Playwriting.
Globe trotting.
Photography.
Body building.
Interior design.

These goals could be further narrowed down as well. For instance, sports. It could be indoor - chess, table tennis or outdoor - football, baseball; could be adventure sports - car racing, gliding. Ditto, for other goals. These goals could be either a part of current profession or totally far from it. Either ways, they can be set not just with an accomplishment target but also with an objective of excelling.

Dream goal was an abstract but fantastic concept. I wanted to put only one goal in this category. This goal could be anything, literally anything. It could be associated with plain destiny or it could be just about putting efforts or could be a mix of both. Let's see some examples.

Acting in a movie.
Buying a dress from a celebrity auction.
Driving a Rolls Royce.
Publishing an article in a news paper.
Participating in a TV show and winning the prize money.
Winning a lottery.
Flying an aero plane.
Skydiving.
Traveling in space.
Flying over the city in a helicopter.
Dancing on the streets.
Working for a month with my favorite actor as his chauffeur or secretary.

As mentioned earlier, some of the goals may be associated with plain destiny; still I feel the efforts too play an important role. For instance, to win a lottery ticket, I need to put efforts in studying and buying. Nonetheless, whenever a thought about dream-goal appears, one usually feels - If my dream goal is accomplished, I would die peacefully. A happy and a satisfied ending! The important thing is the satisfaction (and not the significance).

At the beginning of implementation (i mean NOW), the mind will start playing its tricks. Let's say, I start working on a short-term goal of writing a book. My mind will instantaneously move my focus towards the end result. It will show me the printed version of my book with a vibrant cover page and so many copies in front of me. This visualization would swiftly make me feel - It's not an easy task to write a book. Where will I find a cover page designer, a printer, publisher for my book? Such queries would start surrounding like an enemy and eventually kill my thought. My mind will start defending by saying - It's not a time to take any hasty decisions. Rather, I should first understand what writing is all about and then start implementing the thought. Hence, it's better if I take a certain portion in the future, dedicate full time in understanding and then start writing the book. This would be a smart investment which shall make me accurate and consistent. In simple sentence, the thought was postponed and probably killed.

What would have happened if I had started writing immediately? I believe that would have been an investment. A perfect step towards the destination! The first written word would have been a second major milestone. The first milestone, of course was the goal of writing the book. Every step I take and every move I make is an investment. The thought of investment might sound ambiguous. The mind will allow to invest but with a craving of some kind of instant result. It will frame the process as a cycle of investment-result-investment-result-investment......result. The real scenario is altogether different. It's like – investment – investment – investment –investment…….. ........result(s). Of course, the intermediate milestones are inevitable.

Let's take an example of earning bread. As written above, I invest 1/3rd of my life after earning it. When do I get the end-result? If I am a daily wage worker I will get it at the end of the day. This is actually a milestone but let's consider this as a result. Still, it didn't happen instantly after investment. Not after an hour of work, I get the result. After continuous efforts of 8 hours, I get it. What happened to the result for the previous 8 hours? Did it not happen? Yes, it did happen. The result did happen but just that it was in the making. An investment towards the destination certainly assures that the result is in the making. A constant investment would result in a consistency.

Gradually, the goal would convert into habit and once it becomes a habit, it takes off at full pace. For instance, once a person gets into habit of consuming alcohol, alcohol starts consuming him. Similarly, once a goal becomes a habit, it will start ruling over the mind and also make sure that the goal is successfully accomplished.

1. U, Me aur Hum.

U, Me aur Hum is a usual story with a bit of an unusual treatment. I really didn’t feel like writing a review after watching the flick as there was nothing much to write. A couple of things which motivated me were - Gleaming direction and Stupefying performance by Devgan couple.

Given a riveting story with a first-rate screenplay, Ajay has a potential to flourish as an immaculate director as he is technically pretty sound and precise. Also, the handling (movement and placement) of camera is done pretty well especially when there was nothing much to expect from cinematography. Kajol is again at her acting best. After such a long break from cinema, it’s not logical to expect such an arty performance delivery. Still, I had a lot of expectations from her and they were rewarded too. Ajay too is dazzling. He looks pretty young and fresh. His unblemished style makes him stand out from so-called bollywood hunks (Khans, Kapoors et al). Although I am a die-hard Ajay-Kajol fan since their earliest movies, the above statements are quite unbiased.

Besides direction, the dialogues are quite mesmerizing. The love quotes used at the start are striking too. I was waiting for a character named Kumar Mangat till the end of the movie but surprisingly, there isn’t any. ha ha ha. To readers who don’t know Kumar Mangat is Ajay’s secretary (in real life) and his name is used in most of their productions till date. On the whole, a well-made bollywood masala flick with a typically flowing story. Nothing so grand but still worth a glance.

My Verdict: 6/10

6. Race.

The burmawalas are back; rapidly after Naqaab. It really amazes me how they manage making movies so quick, yet agile. Kudos to their intellect as such kinda confusing scripts are not too easy to handle. Although, one knows what a characteristic Abbas-Mustan movie will be and this one classically is, still it glues the audience to their chairs till the curtain-fall. All the time one knows that something strange is coming up in the very next moment yet 'what' is still the question. This flick is beyond a double-cross thriller; can term as a multi-cross one :)

Stunning camera work, breathtaking locales, first-rate costumes, splendid performances and above all a super fast pace - These are the highlights of the entire fare. Multiple twists and turns are dramatic but also digestive. Editing is a vital area in such movies which is slightly overlooked. Musically astounding but yet quite ill-timed songs also kinda apply brakes to the pace. These are the only two flip sides.

There was a time when Saif would be either one of those funny guyz or a next door chap in the movie. Times have changed. Post DCH, this chappie has gradually turned in to a ruling heart-throb. In last few years, he has taken a few movies (Hum Tum, Salaam Namaste, Tara Rum Pum) entirely on his shoulders. Race is a movie he takes on his head heart and soul. Akshaye has performed brilliantly but his role is quite monotonous and clichéd (alike Humraaz, Deewangee, Naqaab). Anilbhai is an icing on the cake; quite appropriate and natural with his witty character. The comic addition by johny, raghavendra and gurpreet adds the required sugar. Nothing great from girls except seducing movements (bips), inviting appearance (kats) and humourous 'dumbo' performance (sam). Dalip in his side-lined villainous avatar looks pretty ok.

Net-net, Race (could have also been named as Chase) is more-or-less viewable cos of the strong up-sides and the treatment by Abbas-Mustan who reign their specialty cinema.

My Verdict - 6/10.

5. Black and White.

This motion picture, although named Black and White for a different reason, is quite a colorful one. Ghai, it seems is back with a vengeance; a vengeance to his spoiled creative image (post devastating Yaadein and atrocious Kisna). I had a feeling that Ghai must have given up as a director. He has proved me wrong. Black and white is not only a directorial comeback but also a rediscovery of ingenuity, which he already possessed but was lost. Unlike any Ghai flick, Black and White is technically and visually not an exceptional one but still an incredible piece of work when it comes to the treatment of such a sensitive subject.

It gives altogether a diverse insight to terrorism. Terrorism cannot come to an end merely by gunning down the terrorist. On the contrary, it results in rising of many others. This is Ghai’s message to the world. The climax part where Kapoor says – “They send us a suicide bomber to cause a chaos in our nation and we are sending back a human being” is thought provoking.

I have always looked upon Kapoor as a director’s actor. Ghai has extracted his potential to the fullest here. He has delivered an excessively magnificent performance. In his lingo, I can term it as a zzhakkaass feat. The speechless expressions on his face during the heartbreaking scene (where his wife passes away) makes difficult to control the tear shed. Shah has enacted even more marvelously than she looks. Sharma looks stunning too; also has given proper judgment to her small role. Tanvir, who plays a vital role, leaves a lasting impression by managing himself in versatile scenes. Above all, Sinha – the new kid on the block is the most promising discovery of the recent times. He has delivered a breath-taking performance. Almost all the intense scenes in the movie are in his kitty. He has thrived at each one.

The leg-pulling of news channels has become a mandatory part in current films but to a certain extent is necessary too. Besides, there are a few sarcastic scenes which are worth noticing. Politics, Power and ultimately Money has been shown as the driving force for the spread of communal differences and is cliché.

The lyrics and music aren’t that bad. Editing is brilliant. Cinematography is ok. The black and white scenes are fabulously captured though. Once again, the finest part of the entire movie is its direction. By and large, black and white is an evocative fare with a sane conclusion.

My verdict - 8/10.

4. Sin Unseen.

There are umpteen variable ways of defining an act. At times, they contradict too. An act may be categorized as nice by some while vice by others. Broadly, an act falls in either of these two categories. Usually, an act falling in the latter category is termed as a sinful act. Precisely, an act causing direct or indirect harm to anyone is a sin. This is a general definition.

Most of us avoid doing a sinful act. Even I do but do I really comprehend what is a sinful act? Besides, after understanding, do I really implement the idea of staying away from it? A shallow thinking makes me feel that I am pretty much a harmless person. I do not cause damage in anyone’s life. On the contrary, I really engage myself in doing some good activities recurrently. I do support and toil for a social cause. To a certain extent, I am a philanthropist too.

Well, sounds amazing but probably at a superficial level. Let me take myself to a deeper level and think about it. Charity begins at home. This is a well-known phrase. Do I live my life without causing any harm to any of my family members? Further, what about my life outside home? For instance – work, study, social circle, etc.

I might be donating a few bucks every month in a charity but on the other hand do I check if I am exploiting my servant (or any one who works for me and is paid by me) and paying him less than he actually deserves? If I donate an X amount but also do exploitation worth an X amount (only considering the money part), then doesn’t it nullify my charity?

Life is full of nonstop actions – physical, verbal, mental. If I perform any act which makes me feel happy but also gives me a pinch in some corner of my heart, I have 2 choices – either to overlook it or to act on it. Nevertheless, the choice may be mine, but the pinch still persists. The occurrence of such pinches is evident in cases where I have been unethical. There are many cases where in I can escape from the offense by offering a bribe. This is usually followed by a feeling of contentment but what about the pinch? Is it disregarded?

Anyhow, at the end of day, if I feel that I have lived my day without a pinch, I am a success.

3. Transcend.

I am pretty much satisfied in my life.
Life is wonderful.
I am doing great.
Everything is smooth.
Nothing could be better than this.

These are some sentences which I keep on hearing from my friends and most of the times from within. What makes such feeling occur? May be, I am pretty much happy with my current phase of life.

“What next?” Does this question arise? If at all, do I really have a deep consideration on the same? It might happen that this question arises but is usually overlooked. Why? Again, a similar reply. I am so very happy, content and satisfied with my current life that I don’t need to transcend. I want to continue living the same.

Am I sensing that overlooking the question is making me overlook the stagnancy which is on its way? Am I carried away to such an extent that sooner or later the state of inertia will occur? What after that?

On the other hand, aren’t there so many things is life which I want to do, rather I feel like doing but eventually am overshadowing those feelings with a comment – “I am happy and ok now. Why should I start burning my fingers in doing a new stuff?”

Am I looking at 2 major loss areas here?
1. I am flowing towards sluggishness
2. I am avoiding things which I really want to do.

Of course, if I am living with a feeling shown in initial few sentences, nothing like that. It’s a very positive life but if I am neglecting the unanticipated hindrances or being impassionate about my likings, I might be leading myself to misery.

Here is the thin wall of dissimilarity between satisfaction and contentment. I can always be satisfied with what I am and what I have but I need to develop the hunger for enhancement and diversification. This will flourish the challenge-accepting persona within me. This will “Awaken the Giant within”. I will strive for constant improvement. Transcend is the keyword, which literally means “rise above”, “go beyond”, “exceed” and so on.

As soon as the period (.) after the initial 5 statements is replaced by “but”, TRANSCEND approaches.