Guzarish- Request to interpret a request!

Helplessness and a dignified survival is a volatile combination to co-exist when existent for a prolonged duration testing human endurance. This could be one of the statements one can frame up as the gist of a movie I recently saw.

A movie crafted thoughtfully to ornament the spirit of life! Not that it intends to successfully elude the awkwardness and sentimental dilemma after choosing a somber topic like euthanasia. Yet the intricacies of the relationships, the gravity in the roles different people have to play and the study of human psychology through varied sides of a pyramid makes it a commendable piece of art! “Euthanasia” as a topic has been touched upon many a times though it remained a mere collage of sentiments with whom a million sympathize and a very few empathize. Rests of them do not feel it is vote worthy.

The film charters its scope beyond the routine realms of optimism and pessimism. It trespasses these horizons to explore the plethora of human emotions- the ebb and surge of these sentiments for the paralyzed central character while he is in the continued course of sustaining the hum drum realities of his daily existence. Human psychology is as diverse as the multitude of characters we explore. Not only the person seeking euthanasia, but also his nurse living his life and having right over his life more than he does, his mother, his lawyer friend, his doctor, his disciple and his servants- all have their roles to play, their story to tell and their strong presence to be felt in the times of his helpless existence.

In the span of two hours the story passes through the terrains of sublime love, experiencing stardom, platonic friendship, betrayal, endurance, helplessness, forgiveness, pain, fear, hope, sacrifice, desire, motherhood, legal overview, untamed public scrutiny and yet very much vibrant- the ultimate quest of deciphering and controlling life as well as death.

Beyond doubt the sensitivity of the topic has thorough potential of getting ruined by shoddy performances of the actors. They do deserve a round of applause on this regard. Yet the strength of the art undoubtedly lies in the inception of the concept, urge and necessity to present such an unpopular topic on a showcasing platform which is subject to public judgment. A genuine art often fails the entertainment test and frequently repels the financial taste. Yet it is praiseworthy and inspirational to know that the cult of people looking beyond the mainstream success definitions does exist.

It is certainly not a typical emotional melodrama all set to dehydrate the audiences of their tears. In fact every character including the cynosure- advocates life; the issue of debate comes in when a case specific analysis gets into the legal frame of judgment. Ending life was never justified and permitted in any religion. The question is as yet unresolved in the legal domains either. Life jiggles between the hope to die and attain comfort and endurance and helplessness as daily companions for a person who is left without movements beyond his head yet not devoid of emotions a normal human being does have. What could be life for a person alive to this extent and ridden to a bed for around two decades? What could be life for a person living some one else’s life- while nursing him and after he ultimately gets relieved of his painful twenty years existence? What exactly goes behind the mind of the lawyer when she is compelled to fight to her fullest capacities for the death of her best friend? These are a few questions and might be worth giving a thought for some!

With changed descriptors of “entertainment” I am sure a topic like this would have a very few takers. No one is at fault though. Entertainment has always been safeguarded as a relative virtue. People dissociate themselves from the topics provoking thought. However advocating off stream subjects, usually perceived as unnecessary complex mind bogglers, is no where on the current agenda. Yet, within the boundaries of personal jurisdiction, the subject does endorse the intent of deciphering life.

Intangible things govern the tangible survival

Silence should be a lonely virtue. The necessity of expression has been such a governing attribute since ages that even today the world continues to device ways to uncover the concealed sentiments and vent the million psychological upheavals within! Ways of expression are in multitude yet in first place the core significance of “an outlet” has been the distinguishing factor of human existence.

Looking around displays a crowd of happy, unhappy, deceived, deceptive, self-soothing, canny, uncanny individuals yet each one seems to be in the continued quest of some hypothetical aspiration. As and how more and more faces are explored, life quaffs in myriad examples of varying degrees of pain that some one experienced in a different degree. If something is ever quoted as pain, its superlative version is always existent. This fact is the perennial platform for deciphering life.  The fact that various shades of the emotional phases are the result of the cause-effect lattice woven by the behavioral complexities of the individuals involved- makes it the most esoteric aspect of human psychology.

Abstract discussions always experience the dearth of textual explanations. Yet, scrutiny of these intangible realms should be imperative for self-exploration.

The chauvinist way...

Troubled by the abstract queries about the purpose of life coupled with the materialistic pain of losing- life defines itself as a challenge. There are many questions: how to react on losing someone, how to react when someone looses faith in you, when someone dear expires, how not to be bogged down by the mundane realities of living? Living should be a worthy experience though. Apart from those who want to breathe and think that having a life ideology is immaterial, a chauvinist is the one who can survive here. One who is so desperate for something that his desire drives his survival, his mind gets stoic at some point of his life to help him heal his past, to help him so as not to think about those who killed his faith. There comes a point in a lifetime when one gets alone searching for reasons. There needs to be a reason for everything that happens with us, to us. Many insist not thinking about things too seriously. However if that is how a happy living all about, I smell a digressed ramp walk of millions around. Why is it that one should get going into an abstract void now and then? Chauvinist is an end result of not mindless action, on the contrary he is the creation of the quest to resolve the unanswered questions. The life situations/ mental framework keep throwing gauntlets due to which he seeks and acquires something to such intensity. The end outcome is an elevated mind frame a bit more mature in the continued quest to decipher life. Vantage point changes with each tribulation. Some call him passionate while maximum find him incompatible and a pessimist. The opinion is irrelevant for him be it favored else not since most of the things around there after cease to be more than a perception.

Finding everything in the abstract zone of nothingness...

The earth was an accident. The life on it was an accident too. The human evolution, with a strong backing from the all time popular Darwin’s say, was also a happening. No one made it happen it just happened. Everything out here seems to be so ephemeral at times. Paradox of the situation is that everyone is aware of everything, yet we are in a relentless league of finding a meaning to our existence and in a race of achieving nothing other than “a perception”, a picture of completeness that never seems to be complete and calls in for more and more all the time.

What next is the question to fiddle with! The code of conduct, the paradigms of success, the need of competition, the need to have more, sense of stigma in not achieving a particular thing- are all shades of a human mind- shaped by the society, imbibed by the upbringing and a million factors shaping the human soul once into this world. A materialistic aspiration is not a wrong expectation from life. I certainly do not advocate doing nothing because we do not have a hundred answers. Nevertheless, is pondering upon the cosmic quagmire behind our very survival not sensible?

I perceive that if human existence itself was an accident, finding a purpose of my stay here gets even murkier. Finding that purpose is a long-term exercise and many have said that urge for knowing the purpose keeps the journey worth living. While the content here shapes up to be even more abstract and attracts a sense of adsurdity, the unknown answers in this pool persistently keep me riddled.

Some one like Mother Terresa found the meaning of life in being a parent to a millions of those suffering around. A revolutionary thinks that the nation’s political independence is most important for a dignified human survival and he makes it his life pledge. While, some one like Aurobindo Ghosh- a staunch and a moderate freedom fighter leaves the stage in the eye of the battle. He envisages more meaning in finding the meaning to philosophical resolution of human existence than in the political freedom of India. “A nation”,“society”, “common class”,“disparity”,“assimilation of wealth”,”success”,“self-worth”- what ever be our scaling zones, they all are nothing but self-created conceptions. Nothing existed before we did. Each individual is running towards a goal that falls in the shadow of the above quoted arenas. Just that while running we tend to forget the end ribbon on the running track is never in sight, what so ever might be our age, experience, colour of our hair and wrinkles on the face!

Watching the show live on the 70mm screen...

The mundane lifestyle sometimes provokes introspection. Not to give a pessimistic else optimism shade to the content, yet I give another try to look at this live concert from a distant corner this time.

Imagine what life would be like when you are 30, when you are 35, when you are 45, when you are 55 may be! This thought keeps you guessing about the theme of the ongoing struggle. There are so many unknown variants at this point of time; Be it your career, the place you live, the money you earn, the satisfaction you achieve in the things you do; The happiness you are able to give to your loved ones, the “special” one you have on your side in the times good and bad, the maturity with which you look behind: at the happenings and the mishaps of the past…. the state of mind you reach in the urge to find the ultimate purpose!

Things could be so different. The attitude of looking at a few things today could be a subject of ridicule tomorrow as a few past happenings had a similar trend. Few days were thought to be the darkest days- when some one very dear expired, when some one very dear decided not to be dear. While a few other days were elligible for a celebration- when some interview was cracked, when some exam ended in a respectable style, when a poem was published, when a few brothers were made…

The gist of this live concert is that, it hides a multicoloured patch work- eagerly awaited by everyone. Nevertheless the novelty of the picture is untarnished. With time, the paradigms gauged change despite which the anxieties for knowing the unknown remain intact....

Dream of the future with its roots in the past portrays a true desire to achieve...

Passion is the essence of existence. Be it in the work, in the urge to achieve something, in the urge to be somewhere, to learn something... for that matter in whatever it is, the journey fails to be fulfilling...without that urge,that desire kept alive through years that come and go by. The burning fire, restlessness, faithful insomnia through all these years, persistent call of some distant destination, very dear nostalgia at the same time accompanied with the boiling blood for the always eagerly awaited future- they all make the game very much alive, worth living, worth fighting for...

I do not know when, when we can make things turn in the direction we want them to... Nevertheless, they feel worth fighting for. Had this continual desire not been there, I do not know what would have driven us all. 

Despite cherishing a dream, neither do I wish to be judged nor do I wish to run in the rat race until I am short of breath. Dreams cherished by us are so special that they deserve and they ought to be nurtured and protected from the detrimental environment if around, from the people who have already fenced their reach, from the venomous and mundane sanctuary of so called "achievement measuring" paradigms. Numerous achievers had nothing but a staunch belief that it was "passion" if anything which had the invincible ability to satiate their unquenchable thirsts despite all unfavourable circumstances surrounding them.

Success, happiness, contentment and the sense of achievement are all relative. Epilogue for someone could be a preface for the other. In that context everyone is in the urge of a fat book. However it is important to understand that, whatever be the size of this book, a meaningful read demands continuity and a true desire- same is the case with our dreams as well!

  

Re-evolution

Revolution is a re-evolution. That is how I suppose it was coined for the past innumerable centuries and it would be perceived for the centuries to come. History is a witness to the fact that, that is what it always meant. It can be in a person, in a society, in a system, in anything and everything. Each individual is competent of being a reason for it. Man is a true social entity. Nevertheless, it has always possibly been undermined that this fact at times influences the very way a human mind shapes up and probably succumbs in the journey never tried. Potential of a human being if conditioned effectively to withstand the girding factors, is an immaculate piece of divine creation, unshaken and free from physical and mental fatigue.

An undetermined human mind is similar to a cushion. It accepts without being selective- all the heads with positive as well as negative thoughts. A revolutionary mindset always demands thinking and envisaging circumstances far beyond the current ones. It is the urge to embrace the change. Change for the better. Change which is the reason of our core survival. 

Revolution was always on the mind of the stalwarts who made things happen. It is no one's monopoly. Thank god in spite of the globalized economy and the privatization oriented economics, revolution was, is and will always be in a public domain- thus giving every individual a reason to hope, aspire and develop in whatever paradigms one defines for oneself!