Month: May 2010

The Blind Side – Loved the movie!


Caught the movie ‘Blind Side’ on flight today. Loved it! It’s just the kind of movie I love watching – inspirational, family based and what’s more – it’s based on a sport!

Blind Side is the movie which got Sandra Bullock the Oscar for Best Actress. She plays the role of a well to do white mom who adopts a (huge) black homeless kid studying in her kids’ school and the story of how this kid with potential becomes a great football (The American one..) player. Based on a true story..

3 things that struck me..

1) Every one of us is insanely good at something. This kid, Michael, flopped all diagnostic tests but scored in the 97 percentile in ‘Protective instincts‘. Bullock harnessed this strength to bring out his fierce side and make him an incredible football player..

2) It’s all about family. Enough said.. :)

3) It’s important to give first. Bullock played a life-changing role in Michael’s life. It was a challenge to get to know him though -‘like an onion, you have to peel one layer at a time‘. She gave the relationship her all. The results were, of course, life-changing!

Seatguru for seat selection during online check in..

Disclaimer: This post is not applicable for all fellow students who have the privilege of flying Tiger Airways to and fro from Singapore. But hey, we can’t complain.. the rates are amazing! :)

Anyway, it was a nice change being able to access Online check in and being assigned a seat. The cool part was using seatguru! I’d read about Seatguru on lifehacker and it was nice to finally check it out..

Seatguru is a service which allows you to check out the seats on the plane in addition with the pros and cons of every seat. Here is a screenshot..

Pretty useful for long flights and frequent fliers I thought.. :)

The Mahabharata – Separating a few myths from reality..

The Mahabharata (for the uninitiated) is a Hindu epic. I was initiated into reading this by my Sanskrit teacher in Secondary school. I had written about him and the basics of the story here. Studying under him was a privilege and he coaxed me to buy the 849 page book by Kamala Subramaniam.

(And no.. you can’t look inside.. haha)

Since buying the book, I’ve read it more than 20 times and every read has led to more learnings. As I’m getting older and wiser(hopefully!), I’m finding myself consciously trying to separate the myth from what could have been reality. Here are a few observations –

-> There is a lot of talk of ‘boons‘. Boons were given by Gods(great men), Kings (also great men) – all men and women of power basically. What I’ve realized is that for a large parts, these boons were simply promises which involved enormous amount of integrity for the person giving the boon.

For example, one boon involved a hero on the antagonist side promising not to kill 4 others on the other side in combat. This boon could have made the difference between winning and losing but that’s where the integrity i.e. walking the talk comes in.

-> Great men were characterized to a large extent by just one thing – their ability to make and keep promises. The greatest were those who never swerved from righteousness..

-> The greatest archer in the world, Arjuna, was, in reality, not the greatest archer in the world. There were others who were superior in the art and many others who were far more talented. But, he became great thanks to relentless practice, meditation and honing of the skill. He was also the ideal student, with extreme devotion to his teacher and incredibly focussed.

Great lesson.. and a nice application of Gladwell’s 10,000 hour rule to becoming an expert. :)

-> There is a lot, lot about the choice between right and easy. At every point, the protagonists make the right choice and one such choice involved them spending 13 years as forest dwellers despite the fact that being kings were their birthright.

-> Divinity was characterized by valor and righteousness – this is understandable.

-> The role of women in determining the play of events can never be underestimated enough. Even during those days of seeming difference in social stature (given the lack of women’s rights movements etc. ;)), the reason the events played were thanks to the influence of important women at every stage..

-> ‘Any man can withstand adversity. If you want to test a person, give him power‘
It was power that drove the massive war that was fought..

-> The fact that intrigued me was the losing side was actually much stronger than the winning side. However, it was a combination of the mightiest of heroes who were fighting on the side thanks to circumstances, lack of adherence to a moral code and a combination of circumstances that led to their defeat.

Interesting.. :)

Which villain would you find scarier?

Villain 1: Big made, talks loud, talks trash, threatens a lot..

Villain 2: Appears suave, never raises his voice but talks with definite purpose at all times..

Guess who ends up dead?

I found this observation interesting as I was reading a few thrillers where the real doers are those suave executioners who mean everything they say, and generally say everything with incredible calm..

That’s 2 big things –
1) Walking your talk i.e. doing everything you say..
2) Not getting overly excited/not being susceptible to the highs and lows when it comes to doing the job..

Interesting. This is still in the observation stage so no conclusions yet but the patterns are beginning to make sense.. :)

Choice between right and easy.. always..

If there was one thing that I’ve found myself take away from Harry Potter, it’s the fact that ‘life is always a choice between what’s right and what’s easy..‘

Always..

I’ve found myself conscious so many many times this past semester

-> When I was deciding between catching more sleep and keeping up an appointment..
-> Deciding whether to catch more sleep or go for a class/lab

among many many others..

The number of ‘right‘ choices we make is directly linked to our proactivity or ability to make and keep these promises. We ALWAYS know what the right choice is, yet it’s the convenient path that the easy choice offers that results in us telling ourselves stories to make it seem like the right path.

I was faced with this choice 2 days ago. A choice between re-taking an exam and watching what remains of my ‘last‘ holiday (and all the hype that goes with it..) dissolve and not choosing to re-take it and enjoying the last holiday..

It was a tough one just for the fact the easy path looked really cool..haha.. What’s amazing is that the choice making doesn’t end there – every day I wake up with the choice of cribbing and crying or not..

It’s amazing.. always ends up being this choice between what’s right and what’s easy..

and if it’s right, as tough as it may be – boy, does it feel good!! :)

A Veterinary Doctor’s Fee.. hahaha..

A woman brought a very limp duck into a Veterinary Surgeon. As she laid her pet on the table, the Vet pulled out his stethoscope and listened to the bird’s chest.

After a moment or two, the Vet shook his head and sadly said, “I’m sorry, Your Duck is Dead–passed away.”

The distressed woman wailed, “Are you sure?”

“Yes, I am sure. Your duck is dead,” replied the Vet.

“How can you be so sure?” she protested. “I mean you haven’t done any testing on him or anything.He might just be in a coma or something.”

The Vet rolled his eyes, turned around and left the room. He returned a few minutes later with a black Labrador dog. As the duck’s owner looked on in amazement, the dog stood on his hind legs, put his front paws on the examination table and sniffed the
duck from top to bottom. He then looked up at the vet with sad eyes and shook his head.

The Vet patted the dog on the head and took it out of the room. A few minutes later he returned with a cat. The cat jumped on the table and also delicately sniffed the bird from head to foot. The cat sat back on its haunches, shook its head, meowed softly and strolled out of the room.

The Vet looked at the woman and said, “I’m sorry, but as I said, this is most definitely, 100% certifiably, a dead duck.”

The Vet turned to his computer terminal, hit a few keys and produced a bill, which he handed to the woman. The duck’s owner, still in shock, took the bill. “$150!“
She cried, “$150 just to tell me my duck is dead!”

The Vet shrugged, “I’m sorry. If you had just taken my word for it, the bill would have been $20, but with the Lab Report and the Cat Scan, it is now $150.” !!

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It’s amazing how a joke can brighten a day! :)