Gran Torino: Sometimes Winning Is About Losing Too

Just saw Gran Torino. Clint Eastwood, who will be 80 next month, is still formidable with his high-caliber imagery.

Just think, when he challenges a group of young boys: "Ever notice how you come across somebody once in a while you shouldn't have f----d with? That's me."

And I’m not complaining. Not because every film is great — though, damn, most of them are.

How does he do it again and again? Though I don’t want him to stop.

What a shame! Why this film wasn't in the official running for a best-picture Oscar last year is a baffling mystery. It should have happened. Just think, a superstar of film working with young Chinese American actors, elevating them, highlighting them. They’re as good as our own little known actors in Slumdog Millionaire.

What a ending (as like most of his films) where he gave his life willingly; just to let a Hmong neighbor family (who previously tried to steal his Gran Torino) can live safely.

Yes, sometimes winning isn’t about just defeating others; sometimes winning is about losing too.

So tenderly your story is

Nothing more than what you see

Or what you've done or will become

Standing strong do you belong

In your skin; just wondering

~ Clint Eastwood (Written by Jamie Cullum)

LIFE. FEAR. HOPE. DEALTH. ANGELS. LOVE

 

Despair is a great thing, it teaches us to be poised.
Setback is a great thing because it helps us to be more competitive.
Making mistake is also a great thing; it teaches us to be humble.
Fear is a great thing because it makes the way for the hope.
Loneliness is great thing; it helps us to listen our inner voice.
Even death is a great thing because it brings the opportunity to meet the angels.

Love At First Sight: Do You Believe In It?

Love is an accident … waiting to happen

Desire is a stranger … you think you know

Intimacy is a lie … we tell ourself

Truth is a game … we play to win

If you believe in love at first sight

.... You’ll never stop looking.

Have you seen the movie, Closer, starring a pretty woman whose smile looks as like Mona Lisa and an actor for whom even grown-up girls can break any law?

Yes, what you have just read at the top, are from the promo of that movie – starring Julia Roberts and Jude Law.

Now the question is: do you believe in love at first sight? Maybe you don’t believe in it. Chances are that you haven’t experienced it. It’s tough to put in words and tougher to convince someone to believe it. It just happens.

Let’s see what an expert says about it – an expert who has authored the book, Love at First Sight: The Stories and Science Behind Instant Attraction.

To write that book, Earl Naumann has interviewed huge group of people and experienced that 66% of all ages and ethnic groups believe there is something called "love at first sight." Let’s have a look to the other findings:

• 50% of the people who falls in love at fight sight got married to that person, and about 75% of those are still married. Cool!

• When people fall in love at first sight, their bond gets stronger and more passionate as the couple fall in love not with someone’s credential or wealth but the person they saw for the first time.

• Men are more likely to fall in love at first sight since they rarely care about the background. But women miss out this opportunity as they usually tend not to express their feelings. Ouch!

Now, what’s your take on that? Give reasons for and against? Do you believe in love at first sight? If you find, “Hey this is the PERSON,” would you go all out? Let’s discuss …

Crisis: Where Danger Meets With Opportunity

In Chinese, the word crisis stands for weiji, often which has been said to be composed of the characters for “danger” and “opportunity.” That’s why in the popular Chinese culture, a crisis is regarded not merely as a danger but also as an opportunity (some arguments are there).

If you’re looking for an example, I’d suggest to read about C. J. Walker, the woman who was the first born-free member of a slave-family.

At the age of 20, when she was widowed, she started working as a laundress for as little as a dollar and half a day. And most of her earnings were used to educate her daughter. She could save very little for herself—so little that she couldn’t even able to wash her hair daily. As a result, she suffered from severe scalp disease that caused her to go nearly bald.

Rather than making this crisis as a danger, she made it an opportunity. With an innovative idea of hair care products to stop hair loss, she launched her own line of beauty and hair care products.

Within a very short time, her products became so popular that she was flooded with the order and cemented her name in the history being a millionaire.

Yes, C.J. Walker, the first woman self-accomplished millionaire who didn’t cry in crisis rather made it an opportunity.

I got my start by giving myself a start.

C.J. Walker

Who'll Be The Last To Die For A Mistake

You have just lost your job or you have tasted bankruptcy or maybe helplessly observed your love is getting married to another person and than you’re shouting to God: “Hey you, would you stop please. How many challenges will you give me to measure up my patience? Enough is enough.”

But think about any commando. He is moving forward to a terrorist with no back-up and one single mistake can bring him closer to death. It’s not a move in chess; if he loses he’ll lose some pieces of paper printed with Mahatma Gandhi; it’s the move of life and death.

I’m a very non-political guy. It’s after the 26/11 Mumbai attack; I came to know so many names and faces of politicians. One such name is VS Achuthanandan, the honorable CM of Kerala (is it very necessary to address minister as honorable?) who proudly remarked for the martyr, Sandeep Unnikrishnan: “If not for Sandeep's house, not even a dog would have gone there.”

Sadly, not even a single person will ever feel the pain of losing soldier, no one. Maybe that’s why, in the testimony to the US Senate (1971), Senator-to-be John Kerry asked, "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die in Vietnam? How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?"

Even Alfred Bryan is right who wrote the song I Didn’t Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier:

What victory can cheer a mother’s heart,

When she looks at her blighted home?

What victory can bring her back,

All she cared to call her own?

Let each mother answer in the year to be,

Remember that my boy belongs to me!

I wish, we have the law that to be a minister, one should serve Indian Army for a particular time. Then he’d get the right to run for the election. But MERA BHARAT MAHAAN, to get Z security, you don’t even need to know ABC.

Yes, what situations you have faced they aren’t challenge, they are merely lessons. Because my friend, you can always have “a next attempt.” But in war-zone, a commando moving towards terrorists’ bullet, there is no second chance. One silly mistake and opponent’s bullet will come straight to his chest.

Challenge, that’s called challenge man.

Hello friends, sorry for deleting my previous post as I got lot of mails complaining that it wasn't suitable with the theme of my blog. Sorry!

It Wasn’t Pretty At All For The Prettiest Julia Roberts

Julia Roberts auditioned for the part of Linda Warner on All My Children and the part of Hayley Benson on Santa Barbara but in both the occasions, she got rejected. And when she made her film debut in Blood Red, she got just two words of dialogue.

SO WHAT!

Not only this pretty woman has a Mona Lisa kinda smile, but she was the first actress to get paid a $20 million paycheck for a movie as well. Even in the Hollywood Reporter’s annual power list of top-earning female stars, she has topped for four consecutive years (2002-2006). And as of 2007, her films have grossed more than $2.1 billion at the American box-office, making her the biggest female star of all time.