Of silverscreen, an exam and the 'sentence'

     I had the pleasure of a few passive interactions with Mr Vishal Bharadwaj a number of times during my school days. He used to come to Mussooorie with a Bollywood team of cricketers which along with him included Tom Alter (captain), Robin Bhatt - a notable script writer and many other faces whose names I don't even remember. They came to Mussoorie to play matches with school teams of the various prestigious schools located there and the comprehensive list included Oak Grove (my alma-mater), Wynberg Allen, Woodstock and St. Georges. One of the reasons why they came here at that time and stopped coming later was that the son of their team's captain- Jimmy Alter was a student of Woodstock. He was in the same batch as I but in a different school. 


The schools of Mussoorie- its a whole different world out there.

     These celebrities coming on the school campus served a lot of good purpose. First of all we always had some exciting cricket to watch out for. The guys in the school team waited for this as this was one of the few matches watched by the girls' wing of the school. We had three wings situated on two hills. The co-ed junior wing and the senior boys' wing on one hill and the girls' hill on the other. You became senior once you reached class six. we also has splendid infrastructure that included a few tennis and basket ball courts, a squash court, volleyball grounds, some multipurpose grounds for hockey, cricket and football; apart from that a huge chunk of flat land covered with imported Australian grass (it was done in pre-independence days) which was use  for the annual sports' meet, annual day ( Founders' day) celebrations, inter school cricket and the fete(Fancy fair). All this in a sprawling, lush green 256 acre campus full of prehistorically grand oak trees and hence the name. In fact our news letter was called 'acorn'. It is the fruit of Oak tree.

     Now in our time we could never win against this Bollywood unit. Tom was a very good all rounder and a real utility player. but the strength of this team was Vishal. The music maestro and now a celebrated director and showman was an exceptional batsman. He had such a good temperament, knowing when to attack and when to defend. Till date he is credited with hitting the highest six that we ever saw on the grounds. Not only that, he was also a very good bowler, a spinner. i am not sure what kind, but from his action he looked like more of a wrist spinner. Not being a member of the school team, I had the luxury  of not worrying about results. This was one match we didn't mind losing. I remember having written in 'Acorn'( I was the editor) - " The amateurs succumb to the veterans yet again. May be next time...". But yes we guys were a pack of cheerleaders( the term has acquired an entirely new meaning with the advent of T-20 cricket). We just lead the way when cheering. The comments that we made and when we applauded a decent hit or an elegant piece of fielding definitely added to the atmosphere, which was nevertheless electric. This was one of the matches in which we did not take sides; I mean at least we applauded both teams.

      Vishal was very calm, and on more than one occasion won it for his team. At that time his single claim to fame was 'Maachis'- a film based on the terrorism in Punjab. I found him to be very soft spoken. I may have talked to him just once or twice about how I loved his music, or may have wished him good morning. But conversation was limited to that. I remember him being the 'guest of honour' at our annual hockey showpiece- 'the D.M.Swing memorial interschool hockey. He distributed the prizes and gave a very short speech, but it contained everything that ought to be there. Today when I see his films, I can never imagine that such a soft spoken person could carry in him such turbulence. It is like his movies give a vent to his real self. He is the epitome of adaptive excellence. Starting from his trilogy of Shakespearian adaptations, all of which were well disguised and Indianised to be as good as anything ever seen before in Indian cinema. Then there was 'Kameene' and now 'Ishqiya'. I am sure Vishal is a big fan of Tarantino. His movie have so much of Tarantino. But more than that it is the earthly appeal of his work and the way he sees crime and adultery. It may be that I like him because his movies show a lot of what goes on in eastern India esp. UP and Bihar. 

     I saw 'Isqiya' yesterday. Crime makes us laugh. Either we are indifferent to it or it becomes comical. That is the effect of the movie. I have read no reviews, but as usual 'typically Vishal' the music is good. Vidya Balan once agin establishes herself as a talent powerhouse. Nasir..ah! I love him. Nasir is immaculate and 'circuit' gives his best performance post 'circuit'. Vishal hasn't directed the movie but his signature is omnipresent. He always played a long innings. If he didn't bat you out, he would definitely bowl you out. You earned whatever you scored against him. Getting Vishal out 'mattered'. He was always his usual excellent self; others had to rise to match him. The same can be said of his movies. Unlike others, he expects the audience to rise to his level. And he has been so successful at doing this time and again.

      But there is more to life than just movies. Agreed 'dil to baccha hai ji...' is the current anthem, but there is life beyond 'Ishqiya'. A big slice of my life is my MBA, which I pursue with lesser indifference as compared to my B.E. in chemical engineering. Now in these courses 'profile' matters. It is  what appears on our CV; the cumulative sum of whatever we have achieved till date, more so professionally. Having never worked, my profile compared poorly to others. This made me apprehensive about my odds of landing myself with a plump job offer like most MBAs hope for. One day I decided to do something about it, and applied for the CFA (chartered financial analyst) exam. A lot of other batchmates applied too. It cost me a fortune applying but I was convinced of manifold returns. This exam is supposed to be a test to gauge your understanding of financial matters. Clearing all the three levels and having an experience of four years in a financial decision making role enables you to obtain a CFA charter which is a benchmark of professional excellence, and a gateway to 'all an MBA dreams of '. All this sounds so materialistic and cheap. 


Dreams crashed when success eluded me in the very first exam. 

       For quite some time I was in a state of shock. Because we make plans assuming everything would turn out as expected. So I suddenly was in a fix. We have a common syllabus for all students in the first year. But in 2nd year we are free to choose whatever we want to study from amongst an exhaustive range of choices. Earlier I had decided to take subjects in the financial domain but this setback has compelled me to do a rethink. Finance domain by large has the maximum number of job offers during the recruitment  season, but it is also considered to be difficult. Also somehow now I don't want to constrain myself because of the market forces. There are some subjects which I had left just because they were not what recruiters usually look for(supposedly). But one good that has come out of failing is that I have expanded my vision. Now choices would be made on the basis of affinity. There have been some downsides too but I have become less ambitious. Though many would not agree but it seems to be a good thing. We can never agree upon what success is even when considering only materialistic aspects.


        A professor said in class today- "If we choose a job we love, there would never be any work." God knows from where he picked it.


      Not that life around here is only about studies, exams and daydreaming. We do some real work too. Real work like organizing a mini-marathon which has over six thousand participants and over four lakh rupees as prize money.  Also when P.T. Usha along with her athletic school associate themselves with it, its bound be something significant. There were private sponsors too and some other Government agencies as well as non-Govt. organizations too joined in. No, I am not saying I was instrumental in making all this happen. But being a part of this institution I just feel happy sharing it. 


But  I did something else. I ran .... 


Before the actual race could begin, I was already running between the horns of a dilemma. It so happened that there were two races. One was the actual race meant for the brave-hearts who could bear the toil of a ten km run under the sun. There was also a three km showpiece for those having the desire but not the power. 
What followed was a keen battle between the heart and mind.


" You have run it before." said the heart, pumping more blood in to the brain so as to entice it to respond.


"When? I don't remember." The grey matter feigned ignorance.


"Come on! You did complete the race in Chandigarh; It was also ten kilometers."


"But I was very fit then." contested my brain.


The heart had a 'hearty' laugh.


"OK relatively fit. But that's not the point." Grey matter was ready to argue.


"Then what is the point? Tell me. Is it not that like every other day you want to stay awake till dawn doing nothing, and then miss breakfast before you rush to class?"


The mind was speechless, suddenly it couldn't 'think' of anything to say. The heart was now pumping ferociously and in this tussle I was the loser. The 'pressure' was increasing. Somehow my already 'blank' mind managed a feeble reply- "I don't do nothing. I watch really good movies. That time you too love it."


The heart wasn't ready  to relent. Pumping became ferocious. The brain, though it directed so much of me, had traditionally put the heart on auto-control mode. Who would have imagined that things would come to such a pass.


It was time for higher powers to intervene. Or else this write up wouldn't have been possible. How thankful I am to my sub-conscience. When matters had gone beyond control, my sub-conscience which more often than not remains dormant suddenly sprang in to action. By some secret protocol it gathered the viewpoints of both sides and delivered its sentence; but not before reprimanding both my vital organs.


A 'sentence'!!
What else do we call a ten km mini-marathon??