Fall Colors

There are a bunch of trees in my neighborhood which has spectacular colors during the fall. I think one of them is a Spruce. During one of my walks recently I noticed that one of these trees had so many shades of colors : yellow, red, maroon, green a mix of all these. It was really beautiful.

Then it occurred to me these leaves are dying... there is beauty in death... or beauty is in the eye of the beholder...the leaves will fall from the tree in a day or two and will decay and the tree will be bare. 

As spring comes, new leaves will take their place. The leaves are giving way to the new generation ...every year the cycle repeats... the tree stays on.. until one day when the tree will die too

Movie Review : Prasthaanam (Spoiler Alert)

Prasthaanam is a wonderful Telugu movie with many takeaways for me. The acting by Sarwanand, Sai Kumar and Sundeep is great, the story is great. It exposes some of the bitter realities of human nature. At the same time some of the virtues too.

The hunger for Power

Loki kills Keshava enroute to taking him to hospital, for the sake of becoming the head of the village (i.e power).

Fleeting nature of sympathy

After Keshava dies, Loki (Sai Kumar) promises that he will stay forever with the family and take care of Mitra (Keshava's son) and Savitri (Keshava's wife), but Rama Naidu says that he is saying that only out of emotion and sympathy and it won't last for a long time. So he asks him to marry Savitri and only that relation will ensure that his grandson and daughter-in-law are taken care of. So he unwillingly accepts the proposal. This feels more real and a practical than going by the empty promises of people. 

As time and circumstances change and the pain/emotion is no longer there, people often forget their promises and their self-interest takes over other things.

Selfish love for one's (biological) Kids

Even though throughout the movie it is shown that Loki is impartial to Chinna (his biological son), in the end when the heir has to be chosen or when it comes to choosing one of them, Loki choses Chinna over Mitra, even though Mitra is the better of the two in all ways. 

Loyalty

Basha is the only person who knows that Loki had killed Keshava and he holds onto this secret for a long time. His loyalty to Loki is unquestionable. He discloses the secret only towards the end of the movie.

Love and Empathy

After knowing the secret that Loki (his step-father) had killed Keshava (his biological father), Mitra is shattered but he chooses not to disclose this to Savitri ever and also asks other not to do that, as that would totally destroy her, as she would realize that she has shared her life with her first husband's killer. 

In one scene, Loki says to Chinna that whatever he did in his life, his wealth was all for Chinna, but this is not entirely true. There's his desire for power that made him to do all the things that he did. Granted he wanted to pass on his wealth to Chinna, but there were some desires in him that propelled him to do all things he did.

There were many touching scenes in the movie. Mitra is wonderful character resembling the virtues that many of us appreciate.

Movie Review : Parineeta

I am a big fan of the song *Piyu Bole* from the movie Parineeta. I had watched this movie in around 2009 in the theatre when it was released. At that time I did not understand the movie much apart from liking the songs and the music. This is the movie that introduced me to Vidya Balan and Shantanu Moitra. Little did I notice the lyrics at that time. That was the time when I hardly used to pay attention to lyrics. Songs were all music for me. Otherwise I would have noticed the talent of the lyricist and would have known about Sawanand Kirkire at that time itself. Until a couple of years ago, I wasn't aware that there was a lyricist by name Sawanand Kirkire :-)

But recently I watched it online. Thanks to Youtube, was able to watch it by paying just as much as a coffee costs by sitting in my home.

I was able to appreciate the movie a lot now. I am older and more mature to understand the movie and I have a sense of appreciation for good movies now... I can categorize movies on the spectrum of good to bad based not just on the story and songs but also on other aspects like acting, lyrics, cinematography, script, direction, screenplay. Thanks to Anitha for this. 

I noticed the wonderful acting done by most of the crew, the effort made to create the settings to resemble the period of when the story was made, the lyrics of the songs reflecting the situation and gelling into the movie. The story... the dialogues between Sanjay Dutt and Vidya Balan at their first encounter... the love between Vidya and Saif. Sanjay Dutt's role was great and his dialogues were also well written.

I really enjoyed the movie. It takes interest and effort to create such a movie. 

Status tab in Whatsapp

The status tab in Whatsapp, like many other things is sometimes useful and sometimes not. It helps to see what others are sharing and be a part of it. Or you can sometimes envy what others are doing depending on how you see it and your on state of the mind at that time. And it's also one of the many other distractions that a smartphone provides. Like other social media.

For those reasons I thought I don't want it anymore in my Whatsapp. So I started looking to see if Whatsapp allows me to customize it, but I couldn't find an option on my phone. So I started searching online to see if I can hide it. But then it occurred to me : I have a choice to view it or not. How about I train myself not to click on it every time I open Whatsapp? Hence I started being aware of my natural (trained because of habit) response of my eyes noticing the dot next to the status tab and also my thumb gravitating towards it. But I refrained from tapping on it. It took couple of days, but now I no longer click on it. 

The solution was there within me,  but I was looking outside for it. Looking for a tool to fix the problems created by another tool. 

Often, you are in control if you exercise it.