15 April 2006

A Change That Is YOU



The smell is intoxicating me; my eyes are getting heavy and my thoughts gone for a toss. Hold on, I’m not tipsy; neither I’ve come out of an election procession, just that I have just finished a soap opera from the house of Balaji Production. Had Alfred Nobel been sitting in the couch and watching the ever going soap operas that the cable dish out, he might actually used his invention bombing the likes of these saas-baahu serials. What amazes me most is the amount of fan following these serials generate? To refresh the mind of the avid viewers as well as those of you who are quite alien of these facet of our culture I would like to give you my take on these.

Don’t know how to start; actually it was out of curiosity that I have started watching these serials. The expensive costumes, the highly dramatize acting, the matrix like fighting and the trio of “Anger-Jealousy-Tear” exactly in that sequence, coupled with three times slow-motion of a scene makes our industry a genre apart. Even though the story line ends up being in predictive lines, the writers are smart enough to create new dimensions and that too in matter of days even at times minutes. On a last count a very famous serial was having at least 7 directors shooting at the same time but with different plots. I thought we all should learn the art of multitasking from them, Is Bill listening? There is as if a mathematical relationship between the name and the starting letter. Each Balaji Production has to start with the letter “K”, with each serial having an extra “a” or “e” or “I” in their nomenclature. Surly some people make it a point to show that they are good in alphabets too!

The story line hardly matters rather than the name should be numerologically perfect. This lead to my next part of the post which about a story that I have heard while I was a kid from my grandpa. He used to tell me that it is based on his friend’s life.

He is Mukul, a very ordinary boy staying in a very ordinary village in East India under British India. Born exactly 100 years back when the best a man could buy is the dream for independence. He was not a very good student, neither was he excellent in anything. As I’ve said, a very ordinary boy. But one thing that stood out is his tenacity. Mukul was then in class VIII, pretty heavy for his small head. The books hardly made any sense, rather the likes of Mangal Pandey was his hero. Oho! I forgot to tell you about his family. Mukul was the youngest child of the family. He had one elder sister who eventually expired when she was just 12 years because of bleeding while giving birth to a still-born child. Mukul was 6 years old then, a year later his mother expired. The world collapsed for him. There is only his Baba left to support him. Mukul was in class VIII; he had a passion for football. He left the school to join the local coaching club. He used to come everyday in the morning at 7 am and practiced till 5 pm taking couple of hours of break for lunch. His Baba always aspired that his Mukul will one day bring pride to the village by becoming a good player. Everyday Mukul used to come for the practice along with his father, who used to sit at the bench wearing the black glasses under the mango tree. With every passing day Mukul tried to improve his play, but he was never taken into the first 11 of any match. He kept on trying for 3 years. In these three years he used to come in the morning for practice and his father would silently sit in the bench. But in these three years he never got a chance to play. At times his coach used to tell Mukul that he is not good enough than the rest of the boys. But he never gave up. One day he went to his coach and urged him, “Please sir, let me play in today’s match”. His coach replied,” today is final match and I can’t take chance”. Mukul was adamant; he went on insisting that his coach should take him in the first 11. After a great deal of conciliation the Coach agreed, but told Mukul that he will play only for first 20 mins. That 20 minutes changed the complexion of the match, Mukul scored 3 goals in first 20 minutes, his coach didn’t replace him and at the end of the match Mukul scored 8 goals setting a record. The victory was euphoric, the entire village was proud of Mukul. His fathers dream came true. “Mukul… Mukul, where is your Baba” Coach asked. “Sir, the man who used to sit in that bench watching me practice from 7 in the morning to 5 in the evening was blind. He was my Baba. He had faith in me that I’d one day make everyone proud by playing. Sir, he expired in the morning and today I played so that he can see me playing a match from the skies above”.

Believe and self-conviction can change lives. It is for you to understand how capable you are.

15 comments:

  1. samiran surely ur mind wander a lot. u started with K serials and ended with a moral. title justified "A change that is you"

    **K series part
    most of the women only look what she is wearing.
    story doesnot matter becoz they never see the story. repeat the whole thing again and again in loop and they will keep watching it.
    some boys see becoz the lead actress is generally very cute.

    **story
    good one yaar.thnx for the inspiration

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  2. That was a great piece Samiran. I'm really moved by the story.

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  3. great piece of work...believing in one's self is what i think the most sophisticated tool for carving out success.

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  4. ..actually all these serials are specially made for house wives nd so called feminist..those who have more time to waste rather than a very little for any good purpose..some guys also follow the rally coz it happens to be more pleasant for them to keep watching instead of fighting with their loves....good punch samiranda..!!

    ..and finally..ur story is wonderful..gave me inspiration..am thinking about mukul's baba...he must had 'tears in heaven'...the tears of joy..really touching..

    ...keep going on samiranda..

    suman bose

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  5. sam...

    dude.. if i tell u that ur fabulous at what u do, it wud be an understatement to what you truly deserve. having said that i wudnt take the task of telling you how good you are,,.. remember ur last line" Beleif and self conviction..."

    but other than that the way you introduce a course of change into the body of the write up is beautiful. it kept me guessiing, i thought and then i thought again. Like a sculptr who has the power in his hands to shape the future of his creation and like the painter with the brush in his hand, ur one artist i truly am amazed at ur creativity and genuineness.

    it really very beautiful how you have changed the course of the plot and got to the subject. one picture that comes to my mind is a hand running down the thin and slim wais of a lady and going through the curves gently on to the hips. or shud i say like a potter who curves the top of a flower vase... beautiful and enchanting...

    Like i have been saying in my past few blogs, its all about you and making that necessary change. and as i read this piece, i just went through the entire surge of feeling again, a feeling of overjoy when you see an old acquaintance after years in the nearby market, the happiness, the joy and the glimmer in the eyes and the big grin.

    well done! you are undoubtedly on a path to higher grounds for newer write ups. I continue to be in awe and amazement. I definitely take inspiration from you inlots of aspects. I hope we could write something together, perhaps something commercially.

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  6. Thanks for your comments. I don't have the habit of replying to the comments that i get, for which at times i hear lot of words. but the comments given by you made me do an exception this time.

    **Bhavesh

    I dont know about my mind wondering, but surely i think that most of the women watch the serials because of the costume and the make ups. Thanks for again putting good words for me.

    **Mona
    Thanks for liking the post, I'd write something interesting so that you strech your comment a little more from the one liner. Thanks


    **Turbo
    I learn everything from the people around me and just trying to put in words to them. Thanks for reading it.

    ** Srijo

    Believing in oneself is the key, success comes to those who believe in it.

    ** Sumon
    Living in current time the word "feminism" may be little fad, but i appreciate that your view point of why guys watch such serials.

    **Priungkush

    You might have put the article as a post rather than as comments. I'm at awe because of the amount of falttery you are capable of doing and also the amount of humbleness that you show. man, i'm learning from your diction and would love to have the grip of pen that you have. I really thaink we can venture into some commercial space. Let me come back and we can take it forward. BBye and have a great time.

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  7. Thanks for visiting my blog Samiran...as for your post..guess you were in a grest hurry to finish it off...but overall a nice read...the story was really inspiring...will go thru other posts sometime soon.
    keep up the good work..and God bless you!

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  8. Well Sammy I see an uncanny connection between the ***K series bashing and ***story u have quoted.They show we tend to believe a way of life depending on our convictions and attitude.

    Those who are ***K series regulars tend to ignore the facts of life and find a way out in those serials.The protagonist of the story again tend to live life as per his convictions and that fetches him his due success.

    Good contrast presented Sammy, keep up the good work going!!!!

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  9. superb...brilliant...i liked it to the last alphabet...keep it up..

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  10. superb...brilliant...i liked it to the last alphabet...keep it up.. forgot to add my name in the last post...

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  11. Well well well!!! Another of your wonderful posts....

    Ever since i started reading your blog..I've always been amazed by your ability to grip the audience in an iron fist...

    One reason i like your blog is that it always contains something meaningful...something which you just cannot forget after reading...something that would make you sit, stop and think about it...and that's precisely what makes me come and read your blog as soon as a new post comes and as soon as i can find time....

    I must say that you have what it takes to bring another vikram seth...and i find myself completley in agreement with pinki, when he proposes that the two of you write something together, commercially....it would making an explosive read...two best orators of our section, two best writers...and the only bloggers from our secton...

    Whatever i've written here is, i guess not a comment but more of a monologue..i'll leave my comment sometime later..

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  12. Laghu falttery has got a limit, meri le raha hai kya?
    Thanks for reading the post.

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  13. Hi
    me again.
    you have been tagged!

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  14. beautiful post, the story reminded me of a movie I watched long time ago called "Rudy" it was very inspirational. if u get a chance u should watch it.

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  15. hmm. it is all in ur wanting or not.
    a nice post. A good lesson

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