Be!: Blog #295

Be... 

Be Lost than Stranded

Be Concerned than Worried

Be Rebellious than Stubborn

Be Mysterious than Secretive

Be Expressive than Animated

Be Curious than Inquisitive

Be Responsive than Reactive

Be Alone than Lonely

Be Eloquent than Verbose

Be Willful than Adamant

Be an Explorer than a Wanderer

Be a Human than a Being

Be,than Was!

                                                                                                               Arun Babu

Social Media & Split Personality!: Blog#294

Social Media & Split Personality!

All of us have that one friend who leads multiple lives on different social media platforms. On Facebook, s(h)e might be a constantly happy-sunny – on cloud nine – persona. On Twitter, s(h)e might be an astute observer giving his/her two cents on such varied fields as politics, business, entertainment, culture and world affairs at large. On Instagram, there is a photographer dying to be discovered by the world whereas on Linkedin, s(h)e is the best employee of the day, month and year – driven, passionate and AMBITIOUS!!! Here is a fun take on how we express ourselves on different platforms...

To begin with, the display picture on multiple platforms:

Now comes, how we describe ourselves - the 'About Me' on various platforms:

Consider a typical Monday morning. How do we express ourselves?

Now let us look at the all-important #Hashtags :)

How can we end without having a look at the extremely edited, yet #nofilter pictures shared on the channels? :)

p.s. Don't forget to share this with your friends on FB, Twitter & Insta - Wouldn't suggest on LinkedIn though ;)

Why kattappa killed baahubali?: Blog # 293

Why Kattappa killed Baahubali?

This is one question that keeps haunting almost all the billion bright minds of India. Here is an attempt to understand what made Kattappa kill Baahubali? Some probable conspiracy theories ~

Sivagami, the mother: Although Sivagami anointed Amarendra Baahubali to be the king, she was overcome by the love she has for her son, Bhallala deva. To make way for her son to be the King, she orders Kattappa to kill Baahubali. But once the murder takes place, she is overcome by grief, flees the kingdom to save the little kid, Mahendra Baahubali.

Bijjaladeva, the envious elder brother: Bijjaladeva realizes that history will continue to repeat if he lets Amarendra Bahubali live. Bijjaladeva’s children will have no claim to the history of Mahishmati. He tricks Kattappa in to believing that Bahubali's horoscope says that the King will bring ruin to Mahishmati. He reasons that it was Baahubali’s birth that caused the death of the queen of Mahishmati, mother of Bahubali. If one's birth could cause harm to one’s own mother, what ruin will he bring to the Kingdom!Kattappa’s unwavering duty towards kingdom of Mahishmati makes him take the extreme step.

Kattappa, the lover: Kattappa and Sivagami were deeply in love. They realized how their vision and love for the kingdom of Mahishmati were so deep and similar. They understood that it was in the best interest of the Kingdom that both of them take over the reins. They convinced themselves that it was the universe that conspired to make them fall for each other. If Bahubali was alive, they will never have a future and thus, the Kingdom will never reach the glory it deserves. Once the king was dead, they could imprison Bijjaladev (Sivagami’s husband) and live happily ever after. 

Bhallaladeva, the son: Bhallalladeva is in reality, Kattappa and Sivagami’s love child. Bhallaladeva and Kattappa hid their relationship inside the 4 walls of the palace. One day, he told Kattappa " Oh father! I have never asked anything of you. You even deny me the right to address you as my beloved father when a third pair of eyes are around us. I have just one wish, to be the king of Mahishmati. Wouldn't you make your son's desire come true?". In a Dhritarashtra - esque moment, Kattappa kill sBahubali for his son. 

 

Bahubali, the noble King: Bahubali understood that Bijjaladeva had infilterated the ranks and files of his army with traitors. They were planning a coup to overthrow the king. If that happened, there will be unrest in the kingdom and a large number of his much loved people will lose their lives. There was no point trying to fight Bijjaladeva. He thought of approaching his elder brother for peace only to realize he will be imprisoned for life. Too proud to live at another person’s mercy, Bahubali order his trusted aid Kattappa to take his life. 

p.s. These are the reasons I could think of as to why Kattappa did what he did. If your imaginations run wilder, do let me know in comments :) 

                                                                                                                             Arun Babu

Blog on Dulquer Salman’s Filmography #5 : Blog # 292

Blog on Dulquer Salman’s Filmography #5

It had been a while since I had seen a Malayalam movie. I was surfing book my show and happened to stumble up on ‘Jomonte Suvisheshangal’. It was such an endearing movie to say the least. I so loved veteran actor Mukesh’s performance. He has always been a natural. To talk about Dulquer’s performance, I felt he has reached that stage in his career where he is really comfortable in his skin. There is this scene when he is in a bus among a crowd of girls. It is so far from his usual self yet he looks so convincing in those scenes. This is an indication that he is very comfortable doing characters that aren’t urban-english speaking-well travelled- mould. When it comes to real life, this sense of comfort is something we all feel when we reach a certain age. We are no more striving to match up to someone else’s ideals. We know what our capabilities and weaknesses are. The hunger to do well is still there, but it is done by pushing the right aspects of one’s persona to make oneself better. Same goes with actors too, isn’t it? 

It is raining Ads for him, a sign of his soaring popularity. Be it electronics, real estate, textiles or automobiles, he has made his presence felt. He is the brand ambassador for Club FM too. But I still hold the grudge against him for not doing enough interviewsJ.

Comrade in America looks like a very endearing love story set in an interesting backdrop. I loved the way words are used in the songs! Such dearth of lyrics these days in songs and those were a refreshing change.

Oh did I mention that he featured on Discovery channel? Yea! Discovery and no less. How more international can one get? Maybe this has something to do with his increasing fan base across states in India and in the Middle East too, thanks to the Malayalee diaspora there.

         His measured responses to the social situations that the state and the country go through is a testimony to the refinement that his mind has undergone over time. He is prudent enough to not make it overt. At the same time, he ensures that his words convey where he stands on this issue. Very few seasoned public figures manage to get this right. Kudos to that. 

 ‘Vikramadityan’ is one of his most under rated movies, don’t you think? It is like Mohanlal’s movie, ‘Pingami’. No one ever talks about that movie when they talk about Mohanlal’s movies. It is a wonderful film with soulful songs (Remember the song, Vennilavo chandanamo?). There are times when one inadvertently tests the limits of a friendship. A seemingly innocuous joke might drift two people apart. But there is always a hope that a friendship reverts to what it was once and will continue to be. I feel this to be true in life and in the film, ‘Vikramadityan’ too. As much as it was a love story, it was about the portrayal of a beautiful friendship too.

Look at this beautifully minimalist of a trailer. How many micro expressions do you see in a span of about 5 seconds? Here is the magical revelation of an actor's brilliance!

Earlier blogs on Dulquer’s Filmography:

Blog 1 : The rise of a new star

Blog 2: Bangalore days and more

Blog 3 : The grand entrance to Tamil film industry

Blog 4 : Charlie all the way

Blog 6: Spoilt for choice

Why do corporate teams turn evil?: Blog # 291

Why do corporate teams turn evil?

Remember school days? Remember competitions in school? Remember winning and losing? Remember being happy when you won and upset when you lost? Some of us would have turned a bit negative in failure. Some of us would have become negative towards self and rarely towards others too. If you were lucky enough to have had good teachers, the moment you turn negative towards others, they would have given you a whack and told you to get over it and try harder the next time. In corporations, this doesn’t happen.

When someone fails in a corporate, the penalty is high. This is fair enough. It makes competition thrive. Having said that, this culture of intense competition kills the smallest sapling of collaboration. How often have you heard a colleague praise another one? They do praise when the two are in entirely different strata (for example, an entry level employee and a leader). The appreciation for a peer is so hard to hear. Why? If one does that, it might enhance the chances of other person’s growth. Why are they against this growth? The reason is that as you move up, there is such less room for co-existence. The pyramid cannot be more pointed!

Now the absence of collaboration leads to the mindset of “That is not my job!” How often have you heard a manager telling a fresher who suggests an idea for the larger team, “You do your job! Don’t get involved in too many tasks. There are other teams to take care of those things! ”We can all talk about organizational goals. But as long as the high premium on success stays, people will try to achieve only their goals and advance their agendas. They wouldn’t care about the larger picture at all.

Most organizations save their costs in employing lesser staff than required. This shortfall keeps the employees so occupied that they are unable to do anything beyond their daily routine. When they don’t have time to finish off their daily tasks, how will they help others? If they don’t help each other, how will personal relationships flourish? In the absence of personal relationships, what collaboration do we expect to happen? Collaboration is essentially lending a helping hand to each other, isn’t it? If people don’t like each other, they will not help one another.

This is where large corporations can learn a lot from startups. Startups are small, nimble and are in a position to maneuver easily. Every large company is made up of small teams. If there is a will, they too are capable of behaving like startups. Now, do all startups embrace the above-mentioned characteristics? Absolutely not! There are startups with founders whose egos are more inflated than their firms’ valuation. This trickles down the organization and people are at each other’s throats. But there are some smaller organizations who spend their time and energy on making their teams better, in terms of inter/intra- team relationships and dynamics as much as they focus on business. It is this aspect that larger organizations should emulate. 

Is profanity lazy comedy?: Blog # 290

Is profanity lazy comedy?

There are some popular Indian standup comedians. Popularity doesn’t necessarily mean talent, though. It is like someone being a star or an actor. Many a time, these are two mutually exclusive sets. Is that why they resort to abuses in all of their videos?

I do not want to stereotype all the standup comedians. Neither do I want to make a sweeping generalization. There are some who speak the language that you and I use and still manage to evoke laughter out of the audience. The more talented ones even make people think and push them towards challenging the mainstream line of thought. 

The moment anyone is questioned on anything, the phrase ‘freedom of expression’ pops up. It is a phrase that we use very loosely. It doesn’t mean one can say whatever comes to one’s mouth. One needs to apply mind also to the words before one speaks. Of course, this doesn’t mean one should think or speak only on the lines of what the popular narrative is. Anyone with a valid reasoning should and must challenge status quo and conventional thoughts. That is how we evolve as a society. But this doesn’t mean one can be a motor mouth. Anupam Kher once said that if you find the tone/content of conversation you use to be acceptable at your home, you can use the same language in public too. Do you think these comedians will be using the same language when they sit with their family? I think not. If that is the case, what gives them the liberty to do so with others?

At times, blurting out profanity is equated with being ‘cool’. To my mind, it is the sheer lack of vocabulary. In this case, it is lazy creativity and lack of talent. Most of the popular comedians are aware of the power of abusive words. The moment a four letter word is mentioned, they get the audience’s attention. It is merely because of the shock factor. In day to day lives also, we tend to turn our attention towards someone who abuses for it indicates a situation of extremity. But no one wants to spend a whole day listening to someone whose words stink. It is a short-lived trick to get more and more people to watch their videos.

The artists that we have seen over the years did not have a sense of entitlement. Many were vain, some of them were pompous and a fewer still were arrogant. But a sense of entitlement was absent. Alas! All we can see in today’s comedians is just that.

One of the comedians was so full of himself and his little circle of friends that he proclaimed that they were the most progressive minds in the country during an interview. This is exactly what the so-called regressive minds also think! The tragedy is that in their haste to portray themselves as apostles of free speech, they are unaware of how foolishly they imitate the tricks of those whom they call rigid and close minded. 

Notice Period?Be Nice to them! : Blog #289

Notice Period?Be Nice to them!

              Notice period is a tricky time in all of our careers. It becomes even more difficult when managers try to be at their insensitive best. If anyone from your team is on notice period, be nice to them. I have seen some managers making the foolish decision of being nasty to their employees during those times.

 To begin with, it is nice to be nice. If that isn’t reason enough, they are going to be your company’s brand ambassadors to the world. They have a lot of credibility having worked in your firm and being fresh out in the market. An employee going out with a bad experience is the worst branding that your firm can have. If you are not concerned much about your firm and if you think that the larger organizational performance has nothing to do with your growth, my condolences. You may stop reading this blog right here.

Now, how much of a difference can one person make in an organization? By now, those who have a thinking mind would know that each person is important in a company’s organizational structure. Be it a company with 100 people or with a few lakhs. One person can bring about a huge change in an organization. That person need not even be at a leadership level to impact a change. Having said that, much greater is the impact a person can cause in a team. If one of your team members is leaving, you will need to find a good replacement. If you give a tough time to an employee of yours, they will not go out silently. Thanks to social media channels, it doesn’t require much of an effort for a job seeker to find out who one’s reporting manager is going to be. All it takes is one ping to the disgruntled team member to find out what managerial style a person has. The moment a candidate gets a negative feedback about a manager, he/she will pull back. Every good candidate these days will have multiples offers on hand. Right there, you lose out on a good candidate.

Is this a one-way street? Absolutely not. The outgoing employee is also expected to be graceful in the exit. One must not forget that the organization and the team would have contributed a great deal to one’s growth. One should ensure that transition is smooth and the team is well equipped with the knowledge needed to induct the next new recruit. More often than not, the managers ensure that this knowledge transfer happens effectively. It is the treating-the-employee-well part that is often taken lightly.

Organizations often take great care in welcoming new employees. However, minimal effort goes in to ensuring that an employee who has stayed with an organization and contributed to its growth for quite a number of years goes out with a smiling face. At best, the teams organize a call, cuts a cake and everyone speaks like the person is dead. It is more of a eulogy than an appreciation session. How about dropping the person home?  How about giving the person a collage of hand written notes and a plaque of appreciation? How about a chance for him/her to bring the family to office on the last day? These are tiny gestures which will go a long way.   

Arun Babu

Words! : Blog # 288

Words!

 You know what is rare in the world we live in these days? Conversations. Thanks to the gadgets, we don’t even look at each other. Let alone talk. Rarer still are good conversations. Good conversations need good words. If you choose the words carefully, they have the ability to influence people. Carefully nurtured words make poets out of normal people.

Now coming to the way many of us talk these days. There is such a lack of vocabulary. It is either lack of awareness of words or just plain laziness. Here are a few examples:

I was surprised to see that – What the @#$%!

I was shocked to hear that – What the @#$%!

I am proud of your achievement – Dude, what the @#$%!

I was very happy to meet my friend – I met my friend and I was like, what the @#$%!

I met my family after a long time. I was so moved – I met my family and I was like what the @#$%!

My friend gave me a birthday gift. Something I have been wanting for a long time. I couldn’t thank him enough – My friend gave me a birthday gift. I was like what the @#$%!

I got very less marks in an exam I thought I will ace. I was very disappointed. – I got very less marks in an exam and I was like, what the @#$%!

If the above isn’t enough, the below words are used with such carelessness that will put a snail to shame:

Like

Stuff

Whatever

Bro

Dude (To be read as Duuuuuuuudeeeeee!!!)

         Imagine all of us talking to each other with a set of 10 words and nothing more to add. How limiting will that be! If this continues, that is exactly where we will land up. Let us please start talking with words and not just lazy profanity.

Pictories #3 ~ Of pictures and their stories : Blog # 287

Pictories #3 ~ Of pictures and their stories

Photographs are the poetry of masses, don’t you think? I love photography and the magic around it. It gifts us the ability to craft a story in a 4*6 space. In this time of timelessness, photos are the easiest way of archiving our memories. This Picstory, my attempt to weave a story with pictures is special for this one is about my sister’s weddingJ.

This was the wedding card. Upon seeing this is when I got the idea to do a photo trail of the wedding. Red is so the color of a wedding, isn’t it? – Bright, Vibrant and spirited. Like all things in wedding, there was a lot of back and forth on finalizing this card. I so loved the idea of the couple and the elephant on the cover. For someone from Kerala, it can’t get more festive than this!

No South Indian wedding can be complete without Jasmine. Often we forget that fragrances form an integral part of our memory. A fond scent can evoke those memories which we think we have forgotten. The heavenly smell that emanates from these lovely flowers is always identified with weddings in my part of the world.

That is the bride trying on her jewels. These days, there is a constant debate between the bride and the relatives on how much jewelry need to be worn. The bride wants to wear less of them and the relatives can’t seem to think any number of ornaments is a bit much.

Any Indian wedding is a retailer’s dream. The amount of clothes purchased is beyond belief. Clothes are gifted to relatives, extended family and to dear ones in social circles. It is fun to see people trying on clothes and admiring others and themselves. It adds to the festivity and makes the wedding a riot of colors.

These garlands form a pivotal part of the wedding ceremony. It is when the bride and groom exchange these garlands that they are joined in matrimony. I envy the craftsmen who weave them. What a wonderful job they do, to be able to contribute towards joining two minds forever, isn’t it?

My sister is the kind who hardly wear any ornaments. To see her try on those anklets was a moment in itselfJ. Enhancing the beauty of the moment was the intricate Mehendi patterns on her leg and hands. How artists make this world more lovable, isn’t it?

There is something about a house about to host a wedding. It is not merely the decoration that adorns it. It is also about the festivity around the house. There is constant chatter, chaos and celebration. It is almost as if the house is having a runner’s rush!

Like the above pics? Want to be bombarded with such images on a regular basis? ;). Please follow me on Instagram. My Insta handle is roamdworld .


Check out the other Pictories:

Find Pictory #1 here
Find Pictory #2 here
Find Pictory#4 here

Jallikattu must stop! : Blog #286

Jallikattu must stop!

Let me begin by saying that I have the greatest regard for Tamil Nadu and the people from there. Some of my dearest friends are from Tamil Nadu. Having said that, I feel there is a need to have a hard look at this cruel practice of Jallikattu which many people from Tamil Nadu seem to be supporting. It is beyond doubt that this “tradition” involves cruelty towards animals. Imagine a poor animal being tortured and trained to be aggressive all its life. What kind of an existence will it have? And one fine day, it is let loose to a crowd waiting to attack and surmount it. The bull is out there not putting up a performance for us. It is undergoing a great deal of trauma.

Now, the strongest argument that comes across is that it is part of tradition. There are good traditions and bad ones. Don’t you think this practice leans more towards the bad side of the continuum? Of course traditions add value and flavor to our existence. But are our existences so weak that it gets affected by preventing a practice which involves harassing a poor animal? Shouldn’t we take pride in doing away with such a practice and show to the world that we are moving ahead collectively?

There is a visible pattern to the responses coming across. Largely, people in Tamil Nadu want to continue this practice. They do not look at this as something which harms the animal. This is a trap that all of us fall in to. Many a time, we are too close – literally and figuratively to the subject/topic that we fail to look at the larger picture. We lose a bit of objectivity.

A while ago, I had written a blog supporting the usage of elephants for festivals in Kerala (Link : An Open letter to Pamela Anderson ). Back then, I couldn’t see the torture that elephants go through just so that our eyes can have a feast. Not that I wasn’t aware of it. Just that I refused to see it. One of my colleagues told me that educated, well read people do not even participate in the debate. I feel that is true. We do not even make a conscious effort to discuss the rights and wrongs about it. Now when I look back, I feel I lacked objectivity to a great deal. Today I feel the practice of using elephants for festivals need to stop. Although during festivals, many precautions are taken to ensure that they aren’t harmed, elephants belong in the wild. It takes a great deal of torture and confinement to break their spirit and control them so that they listen to the mahout. This needs to stop.

An actor as intelligent as Kamal Hassan should have refrained from making the comparison to biryani.  It trivializes the whole debate. No doubt, it is a very popular argument. But it is not a very intelligent one. The reason being, food is about existence and entertainment is about fun. Lack of entertainment will not kill people but lack of food can. Should we stop killing animals for food? May be we should. But I feel that is too idealistic an argument to make.  May be years down the line, when we have enough sources of food, we should try and stop killing animals too.

Most of us will not willingly harm even an ant. Then why are we failing to SEE the cruelty that we are committing towards these animals in the name of tradition?