“It is wise to have good enemies, than to have fools as friends”

It was a typical Sunday afternoon, I had spent my morning studying, and was quite bored. I thought well I would watch a movie in the afternoon. For a couple of days, I always had my mind stuck on a particular movie starring Chris Helmworth, about a particular F1 race. So I went to Imbd, and found that movie- Rush. This movie is an inspirational movie, moreover it came as a surprise that I didn’t get the media attention it ought to get. The movie is a character portray of 2 F1 racers- James Hunt and Nicki Lauda, and their rivalry on and off track. This is one movie I think everyone should watch. Actually it should be watched by young adults, teenagers, and youth entering the real world. The uniqueness of this film is that though it is based on F1 racers, it shines more light on their personal lives than just fast cars and tracks. It is more of a drama film than a sports film. It taught me a couple of things that probably the 21s century would NEVER teach you- How to deal with rivalry and enmity between fellow competitors. Our 21^st century teaches us to crush our enemies, so as to prove them wrong, and so as to prove that you are the strongest. On the contrary, this film taught me that there is more to enemies than just rivalry. Enemies rather competitors teach you to push onto your limits, and reach for the sky. Moreover, it highlighted the fact that enemies can make up for fake friends, it taught me that there is something more to just enmity between 2 people, there is a companionship, respect and understanding. Most importantly, this movie taught me how to take competition healthy, than just it being confined to enmity. The most heartfelt moment of the film, was its end, the monologue provided by Nicki Lauda-

“When I heard about James Hunt’s death, it didn’t surprise me, it made me sad”

Precisely! 🙂

Well even though, these racers were competitors on racing tracks, but over the years, they developed a respect and understanding for each other, their skills, and eventually had a close friendship. The character portrayal of the 2 racers- their struggles, told me that each person in this world puts everything they have into the competition, and the competition is tough, but it is up to us, the way we take this competition. It is the attitude that makes each one of us different, moreover this attitude finally leads to the development of our personality, and the way we carry ourselves in this world.

Masculinity, violence and the expectations of a male dominated society

Yesterday I watched a movie called ‘in a better world’, it is a Danish movie, it is so amazing and beautifully heart wrenching that it made me shed a tear or two. From a couple of months I’m watching a lot of foreign movies and upto this date I watched 2 more Danish movies- the hunt and after the wedding. Both these movie and yesterday’s movie that I watched have one thing in common that they are filled with a melancholic atmosphere, they are difficult to watch because they are heart wrenching drama about family lives. I’m NOT going to review this movie but I’ll tell you what it taught me.

The film poster

This movie, in a better world tells us the stories of two adolescent boys named Elias and Christian who share a risky friendship. Both these characters are poles apart from one another. Christian has just recently lost his mother to cancer and he is deeply disturbed by it, while Elias is a boy who is picked upon by a merciless bully in school. This film also shows the lives of their respective fathers, Christian’s father is a man who is filled with grief and guilt, he is worried about his son and his behavior, while Anton Elias’s father is a man who switched between two countries- an African country and the beautiful Denmark countryside. He too is disturbed as a result of violence during his doctor job in Africa. This movie taught me a lot of things.

The way the adolescent boys are depicted is brilliant, it makes me remember of my own mental state when I was an angst filled rebellious teenager who had hate for the entire world and was equally ineffective in distinguishing between what is good and what is bad. It also surprises me that this world is a patriarch world, where men who resort to violence are favored. This movie speaks about this and also highlights our inner dark urge for violence against a fellow human being just to exhibit dominance. This society expects that the man should be strong, dominant, cold hearted and also insensitive to emotions. These expectations are very wrong, when a man cries it doesn’t mean that he is weak it just means that he is sensitive to his emotions, and that does infer anything about his maleness at all, when a man backs out of a fight, it doesn’t mean he is coward, it rather tell his courage to not to get into trouble for the wrong reasons. All these expectations are that of a male dominated society, and they are not really the criteria for a perfect male, rather they are all signs of an irresponsible man. We should remember that man/male/boy is also a human being, he too feels emotions like pain, he is not cold hearted he too is scarred by the real world moreover he also has the right to express them. I think it is time to move on from such a hypocritic expectations, that produces a highly irresponsible man who takes up violence at the slightest instance, and gets into a fight, and move on into a world, where this society accommodates a man’s feelings, his freedom to express it and at the same time accept a man who solves problems by his wit and brain than his fist and adrenaline rush. Let’s move on to a better society and be peaceful. 🙂

Like the sun we will live to rise!!

This photograph served me as a reward for the climb Well I took this photograph when I climbed a small hill which is behind my home, which is set in between the great mountain range of sahydris. It was quite rewarding to get this great capture of sunset and it served me as a compensation for climb over this small hill. After I took this photograph it reminded me of the lyrics of the song “live to rise” by soundgarden. The chorus of the song is like the sun we will live to rise again. Incidently it is the soundtrack of the critically acclaimed movie avengers. This particular image encapsulates the integrity of the avengers At some point in the movie, the so called avengers team almost dissembles, but again to be reunited for the ultimate battle against Loki and subsequently saving the earth from the aliens’ attack. The same way, when life breaks you into several pieces, we should remember to pick up all these broken pieces consciously by a positive attitude, and start again so that we are victorious over such dire times. The sun sets in the evening just to rise again in the next morning and it is periodic process, I don’t need to explain this. We can get so many lessons from this nature around us. In our life, there are certain events where we are at the lowest point, we lose the hope to rise again but we should remember a popular saying it is always darkest before dawn. For every hard thing that occurs in our life, there is always a positive change that occurs afterwards, we should remember that we should always keep our head and hopes high. Hard times are designed to make us stronger and we have to take these times vigorously because for every dark day in our life, there is a moral revolution that happens in our behaviour, so that we are well equipped to take this uncertain world. This world always is designed so that we are let down, but this is the ultimate chance of a moral evolution  is required once in a while so that we remain rooted to our ideals and virtues. Our life should be like the sun which sets to rise again once more in the short predictable future.