When do you know it's Love?

Does the blog title remind you of the latest movie creating waves in Bollywood? After a really long time, I was excited about seeing a hindi movie. But I still could not put a finger at one place saying this is one reason for which I want to see 'Jaane tu ya jaane na'; AR Rahman, maybe I guess...Chaos reigned as I made my way to the match box sized Anuega.



A simple, nothing extra-ordinary story, the movie excels in the way in which it is presented. Watching this movie would be an enjoyable experience for many, am sure. More than going on narrating the story and spoiling whatever little is present in the movie as surprise element, I would rather prefer to focus on the theme of movie; love, friendship and intertwining of these two.

In Bollywood, this concept of a 'she' and 'he' eventually realizing that they are soul mates, made for each other, etc. has yielded rich dividends for the film maker. Yes,"pyaar dosti hai", the famous line from Kuch Kuch Hota Hai is the torch bearer. There has also been a case of the other extreme wherein Hum and Tum were always at loggerheads before running into each other's arms finally. The movie was also a runaway success. Another category involving travellers eventually realizing their sole purpose in life was they were made for each other was seen in 'Jab We Met', difference being that the 'he' and 'she' here were relatively quieter and peace loving types unlike their counterparts in Hum Tum.

Our Kollywood's representation of love eventually taking the baton from friendship was seen in 'April Maadhathil'. The movie was a hit. Unnale Unnale, where a lover gives up her position to a friend due to her inability to get along with her boyfriend, thereby highlighting the importance of wavelength, met with modest success. No one would care to remember this movie 'Jolly' featuring Abbas and Kousalya, whose story line runs pretty much like April Maadhathil till climax, where in a crunch situation, the boy says that he is just a friend and can't betray the friendship for societal pressure?



Now this brings me to the crux of this blog. Along with the question "When do you know it's love", the question "Why does it have to be love" also intrigues me. It is like there are two creatures fighting inside me, let's call it Satan, canvassing for the cliched theme "pyaar dosti hai" and Lucifer, saying "No, platonic relationships can exist between guy and gal, Ladder theory is no pile of crap :-)". Usually they say when you are in love, rationality goes for a toss. However, with respect to the fight between Satan and Lucifer if even an iota of rationality prevails, it should be clear that the context defines which creature is the victor. I don't have any experience where Satan has dominated my decision making, so I'm not in a position to delve into this further.One thing I can say is that no one can say that Satan is completely wrong or Lucifer is completely wrong.



However, the public attitude towards 'Friendship rules' movies like 'Jolly' makes it a risky venture for anyone having a similar script to go ahead. Maybe Friendship blossoming into love looks more enchanting to viewers that movie makers are making it some kind of a formula for success. Maybe platonic relationships still remain an abstract concept to majority of our viewers. I have so many 'she' friends and guess I have been true to them. That doesn't mean I don't like the "dosti-to-pyaar" movies. Just that I feel the entertainment industry has been serving with overdose of one kind. Is the audience at fault for failing to appreciate movies like Jolly or is it the film industry's risk averse approach that has been making audience behave the way they are behaving? Sounds similar to "Egg or Chicken? Which came first?" :D

The True Sporting Heroes

One of the oft repeated statements during my "art of living" foundation course was "Don't get disturbed by winning or losing.Take them in your stride". Short statement, strong message and more importantly, very difficult to practice for many of us. As for myself, I try to ensure that winning doesn't affect me. However, defeats do affect me. The time of recovery from defeat for me is directly proportional to how involved I was in the cause.This post shall be about those sporting heroes who turned things around from nowhere and refused to get bogged down by a setback. I take lot of inspiration from these people and incidents.

When we should be thankful to God (Thiest, that's me :)) that we are born without any physical deformities, we don't let go an opportunity to crib about the slightest disappointment. Consider someone who was diagnosed with testicular cancer but still managed to carry on, turn his career graph upside down and consistently win the toughest test of endurance in Tour de France. Yes, I'm talking about the one and only Lance Armstrong.



Lance hasn't just stopped with winning. His foundation works earnestly towards helping Cancer patients. Guess, people would be familiar with wrist bands introduced for this purpose. Lance was a source of inspiration to Corina Morariu, a former Doubles World Number 1 in Tennis who made a remarkable recovery from Leukamia in 2001. Ivan Klasnic, Croatian footballer scored a goal against Poland in Euro 2008 after getting his kidney transplanted for the second time.

Alright, maybe we cannot really relate to these dreadful situation. If it has got to do with motivation, consider Zinedine Zidane. From nowhere, France became a force to reckon with in footballing world, thanks to Zidane's heroics in 1998 World Cup. Zizou won all coveted footballing honours, world player, champions league, Euro and World cup. Understandbly, his hunger would have subsided and he retired in 2004. However, when his nation needed him most before World cup 2006, he made a comeback and took over the captaincy of a team in trouble, slitted by administrators and media alike. Les Bleus were on the brink of elimination at the group stage when Zizou started weaving his magic. From then on, the fairy tale began and was abruptly ended when the player used his head (quite literally) to get the better of Materazzi. Still, it marks one of the most inspiring stories in football. Without Zidane, France now look like a fish out of water is a testimony to the influence he had.



Zidane was on the losing side, alright. However, the winning team on that night, Italy was on the verge of a miraculous transformation; from a nation dirtied in calciopoli, match fixing and drug scandals to World Champions. Thus, what's inside us matters much more than what's behind us or ahead of us. Inspiration can come from anywhere, Liverpudlians yelling "You'll never walk alone" stirred the greatest comeback in club football when Liverpool overturned a 3 goal deficit to steal the Champions League trophy from under the nose of AC Milan in 2005.



It was a disappointing night for me yesterday with Federer conceding his crown to Nadal. However, I was thrilled to see Fed push Nadal till the end. There is no shame in going down fighting. I believe a true champion leaves an indelible remark in fans in the manner in which they bounce back from a setback. I'm confident that the moment when the Swiss master comes back with a bang is not that far and am looking forward to it. After all, "The greatest glory is not in never falling, but from rising each time you fall"



An interesting link I got related to these comeback kings and queens:

http://www.winnipegsun.com/Sports/Top10/2007/10/14/4574886-sun.html

Tennis - The Beauty and the Beast

It is the third successive time in Wimbledon that we are going to see a Nadal vs. Federer final. Federer’s route to final was tougher than that of Nadal and the Swiss master has literally breezed through without dropping a set. I felt agitated to see so many experts already writing off Federer following the drubbing he got at the hands of Nadal in Roland Garros a month back. It has been a difficult year for Fedex as he is yet to get off the mark in the grand slam titles column. If given a chance to sensationalize something myself, I would say that the media; experts at dramatizing slightest of events have all formed an “anti-Federer” campaign. Now that he is in the final, the momentum of this campaign may have reduced a bit.

True that he is nearing 27. However, the kind of game that Federer plays, I feel that the alterations age would have on his game play would be pretty minimal. Anticipation is his middle name, which gives him lot of time to make his next move. There is no need to clutter the calibration of speed guns as Federer can serve aces comfortably at 115 Miles. Baseline play isn’t ideal for him as we witnessed in the disastrous French open final in June 2008. So the question of aged legs unable to pick the shot on the baseline doesn’t really arise. If I can equate this to football, players like Zidane and Bergkamp did not change their playing style much, but still had great influence on the teams they played in despite aging.

I just feel that the media gets behind anyone who has managed to win atleast a slam amidst Federer’s stranglehold. Look at what happened to Roddick? For all the hype, he has only one U.S. open title to show for. Same with Juan Carlos Ferrero. Safin would be the greatest enigma in tennis after McEnroe and Ivanisevic. No doubting the huge talent these guys have, but as the German football coach, Joachim Loew mentioned, disastrously before losing the Euro 2008 final, that a winning mentality should be part of a player’s repertoire. A never-say-die spirit, ability to adapt, a non-imitable and athletic style of play; To sum-up, a bulldozer which can operate with the precision of a surgical knife, that is how I would describe Nadal, in short ;).

I saw that disastrous French open final and also the Wimbledon final last year where he literally threatened to take the match away from Federer. The Spaniard has been getting better with every year and his ability to adapt to different surfaces which was previously lacking, impresses me. Maybe, he has got some extra motivation, like I shall conquer grass before Fed conquers clay :D.

However, which one pleases me more? A symphony or a scene of Lewis Hamilton turning full speed at 90 degrees in Monaco grand prix? Fighting with a rapier or a bludgeon? A Mercedes Benz E-220 or a red Ferrari? A horse or a raging bull? I would happily pick the symphony, rapier, Benz and horse over the other option in each case.

Also, having watched Federer announce his arrival on the grand slam stage with the conquering of another favourite of mine, Pete Sampras, till today, I can say with some assurance that his game play has not changed much. The master doesn’t take any opponent lightly and he concentrates hard on winning the battles and mini battles in each game. Especially when the opponent feels like there is a ray of hope, Fed completely sends him into darkness with a breathtaking pass or an ace served with clinical precision.

It would be too early to pass a judgment on Nadal’s capability to maintain his phenomenally athletic style of play after he crosses 25. Tireless running and rash play may have helped Hewitt to an U.S. open and a Wimbledon. However, his performances apart from these have been mediocre. Nadal, has shown tremendous consistency in keeping his authority on clay intact. However, will that be enough to knock the king of grass off his throne? Self confidence can work wonders for any individual. I’m banking on that extra factor to guide Fedex to his 6th Wimbledon crown. And irrespective of what happens tomorrow and beyond, it will always be “Jai Federer” for me.