Chinni Kum...Shivaji...The Boss...

I wrote this piece of work after watching the movie “Shivaji”. For those, who haven’t seen the movie yet, don’t worry I am not telling the story here.

Old is gold

Strength lies in differences, not in similarities.

These words of Stephen Covey, I remind myself, whenever I think about the generation gap; the big fight between the old and the new. This piece of work is about the thoughts of a young individual, after watching the movies of two aging acting legends, and how he correlates them to the two real life old heroes, he had met.

It was raining heavily in Pune that day. We heard the news that Shivaji, the Boss will be released on 21st of June 2007, the very next day. There is some pride, very hard to describe, in watching RajiniKanth movie on the first day of its release. I was literally steaming between ears, when we learnt that ten of our colleagues had already booked tickets and none from our team was included in those ten tickets. That evening, myself and my colleague Satya, sparing no respect for rain, left out to book tickets for our team. Luckily got tickets for the movie Shivaji, as well as two tickets for the film ‘Chinni Kum’, for which I paid including taxes through my debit card.

Sometime back, when the movie was released, Rajini had remarked humbly, that “Amitabh is an emperor, and he just a king”

And I was lucky enough to watch the movies of both the king and the emperor, that too in two successive days. Chinni Kum, is a soft emotional melodrama expressing the emotions of a 64 year old Amitabh, in love with a 34 year old Tabu, with both willing to marry each other. Funnily, Tabu’s father in the movie is 6 years younger to Big B, unwilling to let her daughter marry an old man.

This movie is worth watching, for it beautifully expresses that death, the five letters most feared word, is not something for the old alone, and not something to fear about always while taking decisions. The movie really touches your heart, when Tabu remarks, ‘Wish I was sexy’, when the small cute girl by pet name Sexy dies due to blood cancer, consoling the pains in tears of Amitabh’s old eyes.

After watching this movie, I reminded myself of a great poem “We are seven” by Wordsworth, which is about a little girl, who is innocent to the extent, that she is not willing to accept that her two siblings are dead, and they are only five now. She says with blind conviction, that they are seven, not accepting that the two are dead, for she knows nothing of that most feared five letters word, death.

How many are you, then," said I,"If they two are in heaven?"Quick was the little Maid's reply,"O Master! we are seven.""But they are dead; those two are dead!Their spirits are in heaven!"'Twas throwing words away; for stillThe little Maid would have her will,And said, "Nay, we are seven!"

Sometimes, I feel, the most adorable thing in life, is the hope, that too the blind one. Blind conviction of younger generation.

Hope never dies. And it never did, till the last scene of Shivaji, I was shouting loudly cheering my hero, expecting a typical Rajini Bonanza. Mince no words; the film was not even to thirty percent of my expectations, and only his last half an hour act as ‘Mottai Boss’ was worth watching, and his dialogue ‘Nane Shivaji, Nane MGR’ is worth listening a thousand times.

At the end of it all, felt really happy that I watched the first preview show in Pune, through proper means, paying for the tickets through my debit card, luckily and inadvertently, because it is a film that speaks against the black economy, that suffocates our country currently, but still, left me wondering how many people in Tamil Nadu are buying tickets in black to watch the movie that speaks against it.

Oh yes, Two icons, delivering two distinctly different movies, at the fag end of their careers, with their trade mark punch is worth admiring.

Indeed “Old is gold”

But as young bulls, we never realize this.

Once a young engineer, walked into a room of retired consultant, and questioned the credibility of the proposal of manufacturing the car in 1 Lakh rupees. For which, the old replied bluntly, “The door is there, wide open, for you too walk out, if you don’t believe in it”

Saw this happen to a colleague of mine, so never had the guts to face this old man, with very little white hair sticking around his shinning bald head that too neatly cut, paying unnecessarily to the barber, I thought. Indeed he was a shining example for all what he is, not just for physical reasons alone, because he happens to be the Shivaji of Mrs. Sudha Murthy. I mean the boss of founder of Infosys foundation.

Just for information, Mrs. Murthy was the first woman employee of TATA MOTORS LTD, and she had worked under him.

Simply, I love this man, for the energy that he possess at his age, dancing along with young engineers in the get together party. And no surprises, indeed he was dancing, shaking his hip like the pop singer Shakira, would do in the song “Whenever………..”

And, whenever, you have a problem to solve, be it technically or personally, pose it to him. He would answers for all of them in his very own unique simple philosophical way. He often says, the most intelligent people are those who seek for help, at right times. So, understand there is no point in reinventing the wheel.

Trust is the most important word he relies on, for that matter all old horses, distinctly opposite to the word hope, we rely on….Just try to figure out the subtle difference between these two words, you shall understand why there is so much difference of opinion between the generations. One tries to build a monument for the future generation, based on experiences and facts, it endured all these years and the other tries to build a castle in air, based on expectations and blind hopes.

Yet, still I wonder why my hope never dies…..for I am indeed young, just 26 years old.

He reminded me of my grandfather.

Two years back, I wrote an article about the generation gap, which luckily got published in Voice your views column in ‘The Hindu’, where I wrote that I drew immense inspiration listening to the bed time stories of my grandfather about his life struggles and pain he endured, which helps me to face the harsh realities of life today, which today’s kids are missing badly, for they are glued to their virtual world of computers and sorely miss such beautiful relationships.

Just two weeks later, my grandfather passed away. I don’t know whether it is mere coincidence in life that it happened that way that he passed away, after reading the article written by his grandson. But, when I arrived to mourn his death at his place, more than his death, the article was more talked about, much against my wishes. But learnt from my grandmother that he was so happy reading it, when she cried hugging me.

I wanted to cry that day, but never dropped a single drop of tears from my eyes. Sometimes, I wonder how tears too can betray you in Life.

But was a very proud grandson, remembering my grandfather’s words

“Men never cry