staying.cool

there are many ways in which one says they’re the king of the world. reaching a world record. winning a world tournament. reaching a world no.1 spot. and many other things that have ‘world’ in the title. watching 2 men hunched over their arcade machines in the back of a garage somewhere.. attempting to hit a record score, is something in itself.

i have never been a great gamer. i game, but not to levels of perfection, not as a very good one. there are 2 types of gamers: the casual uninterested, aka average gamers. and those who know intuitively when the next monster will attack you. or the next disaster will hit your civilization. aka, the great gamers. me, i need to replay levels over and over.. and i eventually figure out what comes where. i have replayed battles 7 times over, in an attempt to get through it perfectly. and even then on the 8th time will screw up completely. ‘max payne’ is great that way, you can enjoy the different variations of slow motion more everytime. ‘far cry’ is not, the enemy is too smart to repeat itself
meanwhile, my friend has finished both ‘half-life’ and ‘half-life 2′ in that time.

i watched them.

the boy stretched out his hands, barely able to reach what was being held out to him. his tiny fingers grabbed onto the older mans’ hands and tugged down to be able to see better. a wizened face crinkled as the boy managed to get things into view. gnarled hands were searched by tiny fingers for a gap, for a single opening… wrinkled fingers were selectively pulled at to test the strength of the grip. the smile widened as the boy found a finger that seemed possible. more height was needed, and so little feet clambered onto larger, older ones while an aged back strained to bend down and show the boy what he wanted. pull.. pull.. a finger came free from an age-old grip, and the little face shone with delight as he watched knotted hands unravel a seemingly impossible formation while he held onto a single finger, a fore-finger. yells of delight as the boy jumped, and then tugged down again. the aged body could take no more, so he sat down.. and watched the little one struggle to put hands and fingers into an impossible formation. weathered eyes shone with delight as the boy presented his ‘puzzle’. very carefully, the wrong finger was chosen, to further yells. the old man sat back, beaming with joy as the young boy ran circles around him proclaiming victory. all at once, he reached out and encircled him in a hug the kid couldn’t wait to get out of. even as the kid ran away the man looked up to see me. and smiled. a smile that i see too, too rarely nowadays.

the smile of a grandfather playing with his grandson.

smei = root of the word ’smile’

i’ve always dreamed of making movies.

not acting, not composing.. actually making them. i’ve imagined placing the camera at that corner, and have it pan across the scene as it happens in my life. i have played out endless chase sequences, millions of scares and too many fight scenes to count. with very distinctive and yet realistic sound effects. there have been times i have wondered what life would be like were i star of my own truman show. there have been other times i have wanted to recreate a car chase down to the smallest detail.

but i don’t have the money.

it never stopped me thinking about them though. my sequences were grandiose, my scenes were spectacular. any battle of my gi joes with the evil forces of evil never ended on a tame note of the leader being knocked over. no, there were long drawn out battles… with many mini-battles happening within them. the evil overlord took a lot of killing though. there were never enough bullets or missiles to do it. it took a couple of hundred explosions to get parents riled up about all the sound that was being made though.

i have formed ideas for movies, formed trailers, formed whole acting careers about these movies. the genius that lay in every one of them had to be seen to be believed. no-one ever saw. i gave voice-overs, i acted, i directed.

i have a list of movies to watch that never seems to diminish. it doesn’t take a lot to get on the list, just the fact that the movie might exist has sent me on insane hunting sprees. i indulge it, it is a mania that i enjoy. the movies always deliver. there is the final takedown sequence in ‘the dark knight’, the final attack of the lions in the ‘ghosts in the darkness’, the velociraptor in the kitchen of ‘jurassic park’, the horse race in ‘ben hur’, the war from the ‘lord of the rings’… the list goes on.

which is why when i watch 2 guys start with a camera, some duct tape and some streamers and end up with ‘ghost busters’…. it means a lot. thinking up the angle of the camera so that you can shoot a pianist playing his final song… blowing up a mini-city to simulate king kong — it doesn’t matter.

its all possible.

as the movie closes to a captive audience watching a projection on a screen.. applauding every dialogue, believing everything they see.. it shows you the magic.

the magic the movies have always had. and always will.

From Be Kind, Rewind.

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The Las Vegas flights are known for the unavailability to book flights at the last minute. Most of the airline’s tardinesses makes it possible for one to get seats on Orlando flights and even the flights to London.

india has been victim to a blast roughly every 2 months for the last 2 years. the blasts are happening more frequently now, and more blasts have being threatened by those who have done it. in 2008 alone: rampur, u.p. - terrorist attack. jaipur, rajastan - 8 blasts in 12 minutes. bangalore, karnataka - 9 blasts in 14 minutes. ahmedabad, gujarat - 17 blasts. the word ‘blasts’ seems innocuous now.

as i write this post i keep checking the news sites as i write, dreading another news item. greatbong pretty much summarized it. we live in india with terror as a way of life. people praise the ’spirit’. the ‘resilience’. the ability for people to get up after an explosion and keep moving. live life as though nothing has happened. is it really worthy of praise? we talk over dinner, mention the fact that [city] is already back on its feet. we make statements with a quiet pride about how quickly people were back to work, back to running around their daily routine, back to life.

seriously?

we talk about how nothing has been done. how the system has not managed to get anything done for any of the victims. how none of the criminals have been caught. that this is why people have learnt to keep moving on from one blast to the next. we deride the lack of effort taken by the police, the politicians, the press, anyone. we say that we in india have no spine, we do not care enough, that we are not fit to do anything about anything. and then we continue eating and start discussing ‘the dark knight’. i do this all time, and every time i finish it hits me like a body blow.

watching a little boy dip, swim and dive on the back of a water-horse in the waters of the scottish lochs strikes a chord deep within. how many times have i wished that i would find a magical creature, and raise it ? when you watch e.t., you barely wonder if its possible to harbor an alien in the house. you dismiss the possibility that such a creature may exist, and may actually give you magical powers.

that such a creature may be extremely untenable to take care of be hanged, just having one around reminds us of the many truly magical things we explain everyday. how often have we notices the flashing fireflies in the twilight, putting in specks of light that remind you of the set-up sebastian makes in the little mermaid. we keep moving, not noticing the final rays of the sun illuminating water in the distance.

suddenly its no longer about whether the magic truly exists, but about whether you want it to exist. we cannot wait for secrets to be revealed, we need to necessarily ensure that eyes can play tricks on us. will it take a monster rising out of the loch to make us realize the truth that stands in front of us all the time ?

the only way to make the world a better place for those who truly matter is to look at it as a kid. for the kid, the toys in his room can come alive at night, and a rat can make the worlds’ best chef. for the rest of us, its about the beauty of animation. maybe water-horses don’t exist, maybe cupboards don’t open out into new lands, maybe the ministry of magic doesn’t have an office anywhere at all, maybe people don’t get bitten by radioactive spiders, maybe a ring never had to be destroyed lest it take over the world. maybe.

but that doesn’t mean that they can’t exist. or that they won’t exist in the place they were always meant to be found.

in a child’s eyes.

Due to The Water Horse

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There are not many fun travel deals to choose from. Although there are a few hotels offering special packages for children, many cheap flights don’t. The flights issue is quite severe. The car rental has no such problems though.

Age: 5. Parent-Teacher meeting.
“Satish is a good kid, his letters and numbers are coming along well. At this rate, he’ll be ahead pretty soon. Initially, he was facing some issues settling down, but he’s coming along well now. All he has to have is to be buckled down.”
[Dad/Mom]“Completely agree. We have seen the change.”

Age: 25. Parent-Advisor meeting.
“Satish is good, his research papers are coming along well. At this rate, he’ll be ahead pretty soon. Initially, he was facing some issues focusing, but he’s gained in intensity and research now. All he has to have is to be buckled down and pushed forward.”
[Dad/Mom]“Completely agree. We are still seeing the change.”

Me: whether age 5 or age 25, I stand in the background, shifting foot to foot, with a smile plastered on my face, and nodding along.

Sigh..