Why does a child laugh when you throw it in the air and catch him??

I have come across this analogy a million times.

Why does a child laugh out with delight when you throw it in the air? The answer has always been this—Faith or belief in the person who throws it in the air. The child has complete faith entrusted on this adult that he or she will catch him and not let him fall.

Never did this analogy raise any kind of curiosity or doubt in me..untill yesterday.. Yesterday, I heard it again. I had been in the church for the usual Sunday mass. On account of walking from home to church, I was a little late and reached the church only after the Bible reading. It was time for the preaching and this was one of his stories of the day.

Then I started wondering.. Is it really due to the strong faith in the adult who throws him up in the air, that the child doesn’t cry, but laughs out with delight? Or is it because of ignorance? Ignorance of the fact that if he is not caught in time, he will fall down? Ignorance of the fact that if he falls down, it will hurt bad?? Ignorance of the feeling of hurt or pain in itself?

The child is just not conditioned yet that a fall from such a height could lead to pain. Until you know it, you are fearless. Ignorance makes you fearless. If the child had an experience of falling from a height and getting hurt in the process, I don’t think he or she would ever laugh out loud again when they are thrown in the air to be caught…

On Marlowe's poem!

Who ever loved, that loved not at first sight?Asked Marlowe; I did, said I for I agree
It lies not in our power to love or hate,
For will in us is overruled by fateAnd what if fate decides for our love to bloom
Like a morning flower with the first rays of the sun
Than like a thunderbolt that strikes in a jiffy

My sight was not chosen by love nor love by sight
But directed by overruling fate with all its might
I have been asked to love you..
Nd I love you with all will in me..

Moments!!!

Glaring light..searing heat..dusty roads..parched pathways

Weary.. wooly vision.. unsteady steps.. dazed memories..

Flow of water.. energizing..cleansing.. filling the pores

Overflowing.. pulling.. taking vengeance..

Bone chilling cold.. freezing..powerful.. magnetic..

Struggling.. throwing weight.. not letting go..

Unable..helpless.. losing strength..gasping..

Choked throats.. desire to live..but weight in the soul..

Unable to let go..clear vision for a moment..

Images flashing..memories returning..lips twisting to smile

Flash of light..painless.. rest.. Oblivion..darkness..

Peace..Peace..Eternal peace …

Reflections

Long time ago, I guess it is for the school magazine, I wrote a passage on aspiration and contentment-that they are two conflicting values. I don't even remember my take on the topic at that time and am not at all sure if it will align with the thoughts of this post. Well, life has changed quite a lot since then. If at that point of time, the inspiration behind the writing was something I read or my own novice ideologies, this time it is experiences in life since then and reflections on them thereafter. Well, you don’t grow up/old for nothing!!

So, is it aspiration or contentment that one should go for? Well, no one can live with just one of those; life would be awfully boring then. It has been and always is a balance that will keep you going and keep you happy, but one's key rests in finding that delicate, fine balance. But at this point of time, if you ask me-is it up to an individual to find his key and unlock the lock, I would say well, it’s written!! It’s written in your destiny!! Can you believe it?! I am one of those people who read the book the alchemist and said that the fundas in that are too much of a fantasy to be applied in real life.

But now, I think I stand corrected myself because I feel the fundas were always right and down to earth, only the application of the funda in the life of a shepherd who was destined to find treasure is fantasy. And what we adapt to our lives is not the fantasy element, but the funda element. And the funda I can relate to most in my life now is the connection between events, people, time etc. It’s all connected. What ever happened in your life in the past is connected to some event that is in the present or in the future. You don't see the connection unless it starts getting a little obvious and you decide to stand back like a third party observer and observe all the events that happened so far in your life and care to find the links.

I had always thought that the 3 years of my college life was over and done with if not for some fond memories and the learning’s. But now I feel, it keeps coming back through the connections it has to my present. What was so relevant then and proved to be futile later happened for a reason and what was irrelevant has become important. And the reason I mentioned is nothing but to facilitate the transition from irrelevance to relevance. It all makes sense!! And now, I think I will find my right key for my lock where the balance between aspiration and contentment lies.

The Brand called India!!

Slumdog Millionaire : A very recent movie that caught the attention of the film audience in India and International. Says the story of a love struck youngster who participates in a reality show because of the probability that his lover might be watching it. And the movie element- he wins the show!

The White Tiger: A very recent novel written by an Indian author about a person born in the rural India making it to be an entrepreneur.

Two recent items in news-one is a novel and another is a movie based on an Indian novel. What is common between both? There are two common factors:

First: Both have been critically acclaimed and won prestigious awards. While the author of The White Tiger , Aravind Adiga won the Man Booker Prize, The Slumdog Millionaire won has won five Critics' Choice Awards, four Golden Globes (including Best Drama Film), and seven BAFTA Awards (including Best Film). The film has also been nominated for ten Academy Awards

Second: The crux or the background of both the works remain the same- an India which is known and familiar to the world. An India which is poverty struck with large population living in slums and underdeveloped rural areas getting exploited by the powerful. Beggary, Communalism and Poverty being the backdrop of all images that is being created about the country.

Why does it sell big? Why does such portrayal of India become so successful, acknowledged and acclaimed in the West??!! Let’s face it, the world like India that way. The image of the emerging super power or the Corporate India does not sell!! It’s like an overnight transition of the brand image. The brand called India sells when it is associated with slums, beggary and poverty rather than with corporate tycoons or the nuclear weapons.

I am not getting in to the controversial topic if India is really so, the accurate depiction of reality or stark contrast. This is been discussed and is quite a repetitive one. But I would like to pose more impartial questions purely from a marketing perspective- Why is that this brand image of India as a third world country still sell so big when our nation builders are making huge efforts to re brand India as the glamorous, young superpower/ Corporate India??!! Is it a marketing failure? A case of unsuccessful re positioning or is it just that the cost and effort incurred in re positioning the brand will take much more time to produce results than envisaged by this brand builders??

Questions are open!! Suggestions, Opinions and Hot debates are welcome!!!

Memorable lines

He had already understood that he would never leave that room, for it was already foreseen that the city of mirrors (or mirages) would be wiped out by the wind and exiled from the memory of men at the precise moment when Aureliano Babilonia would finish deciphering the parchments, and that everything written on them was unrepeatable since time immemorial and forever more, because races condemned to one hundred years of solitude did not have a second opportunity on earth.(The concluding statement in the nobel prize winner-One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garzia Marqez)

Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine(Casablanca / 1942)

Dear, dear!!! how queer everything is today!! I wonder if i have been changed in the night!!- Alice thought when she emerged in the new world after passing through the rabbit hole. (I have not yet passed through the rabbit hole..But the feelings are mutual)

I don't have an alcohol problem..What I have is a low alcohol tolerence problem. Aysha says to Karan when he finds her all sloshed out(From the book 'Almost Single'. She spoke my words!!!!)

So no one told you life was going to be this way. Your job's a joke, you're broke, you're love life's DOA. It's like you're always stuck in second gear, Well, it hasn't been your day, your week, your month, or even your year.(Friends title song- how can things in my life be explained better??!!!!)