As I drift into the past... treasured memories

This is the end of one of the happiest days of your lives but, also the beginning of the most worthy days of your lives...quote from the Happy Days Movie

We just watched the much talked about 'Happy Days' movie last night. It made me drift away into the past and made me reminisce all the fond memories of my 4 years in RECW. As far as the movie is concerned, I was a bit disappointed because I expected a lot more given all the hype. I was disappointed that it showed all the college days experiences being surrounded around the romances (girl meeting boy, falling in love, etc). I couldn't connect with it fully because for me my college memories were lot more varied than just that. The romance and the sweet nothings did add a lot to it but, there was lot more to those 4 formative years than just that. This was the first time that I and many others like me were out of home and living on our own, first time that I was expected to make my own day to day decisions, first time that I was not within the protective shields of mom and dad and had to experience different personalities and build my own personality. This was the first time I learnt how to deal with such different personalities amicably. It was filled with lot of learning/growing pains initially, character building experiences, budding friendships, innocent crushes turning into sweet romances and in my case leading to a lifelong bond. I still remember vividly how along the years, we each formed our little friends group that was family away from home, the group that we shared our dreams, secrets and fears, the group that was together through happy times and sad times, the group that cheered for each other no matter what. As I look back, it is very interesting to see how all of us were so different in nature but, together formed this great bond. Its also very interesting where each of us is now in our lives and how our lives have taken a different shape but, one thing we all have in common is our fond memories of our 'Happy Days' a.k.a our 4 years of college days.

If only, I can relive those 'Happy Days' again at least for sometime...

Taare Zameen Par

Taare Zameen Par: Wow... what a movie, what a message. Aamir Khan has in my mind become synonymous to 'Sensible story telling' You can excuse him for the Mangal Pandeys... since he has given us Lagaan, Rang De... and now Taare Zameen Par. This movie is about a Dyslexic kid and his experiences with his parents, school and a wonderful teacher that comes into his life. It got me thinking and I was wondering that while most of us go through so many years of education and rigorous training to excel in our day jobs, we often don't give a second thought about rest of the roles we play... nobody really teaches us to be good friends, good partners or good parents..we are just left to chug along ourselves, either just be lucky and figure it all out on our own.. or learn from our mistakes (hopefully not too big). Looking back, now that I am wife and a mother, I wish I could take a course in Human Relationships and Parenting. BTW, my favorite part of the movie was the last scene when Aamir Khan lifts the kid up in air.. it shows so beautifully the role us parents and teachers can play in every child's life which is to provide the right support to help them reach for the stars.

Trip back home

We are back from our 3 week trip back home. It was just as expected good, short and hectic. The initial couple days were a blur as we were trying to engage with all the family around us while head was spinning due to the time differences. But, as we got into the flow, things didn't seem as chaotic and we just got used to the constant buzz around which is quite characteristic of every Indian household. Every person ends up building their own ecosystem with a network of contacts which keeps their lives going smoothly. Self-sufficiency is attained only when an efficient network is built starting from the milkman, newspaper boy, grocery store person who will deliver at any time of the day because of the additional tip he expects, medical shop person who will deliver in minutes.. the clerk in the movie theater who will keep aside tickets for any show.. so on and on. So... in the end the Indian system ends up being 'for each their own..' The rules of the game are different for different people. With modernization and improved infrastructure, all such things are being streamlined with lot more uniformity but, the society and people rely much more on their personal contacts and networks than the underlying infrastructure itself.
This is such a contrast to our lives here in the west where each person right from their childhood is taught and trained to be very independent, to run with the system. There is generally nobody who will tell you how to get the gas connection at home.. one has to just figure it out... there is nobody you can call to get school admission if you missed the deadline.
I am not trying to put one down over the other but, it was interesting to observe the differences and how people just adapt within each system and just run with it.