A piece of Mind

Speech by Bryan Dyson (CEO of Coca Cola)

'Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the
air. You name them - work, family, health, Friends and spirit and you're
keeping all of these in the Air.

You will soon or one day understand that work is a rubber ball.

If you drop it, it will bounce back.

But the other four Balls - Family,Health, Friends and Spirit - are made of
glass. If you drop one of these; they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked,
nicked, damaged or even shattered. They will never be the same. You must
understand that and strive for Balance in your life.'

Rock On

“meri laundry ka ek bill , ek adhi padhi novel-tana na na na”

Awesome tempo and mind-blowing music, complimenting my mood to the hilt at the moment when I am riding a bike (with damaged shockers), on a highroad patch-worked with pot-holes. The speedometer shows a perfect 180kmph and to complete the picture there’s a slow drizzle.

Thud thud thud thud-“ tana na na na”

The damaged shockers of my bike along with the pot holes are playing a perfect role in keeping the tempo of this song.

Drops of rain touching my face with the slush greenery in the backdrop is just enough to set the mood for wild fantasies- but my mind decided to do a somersault and I ended of thinking all weirdest of the weird thoughts.

This song for instance, a rock song showed me a basic difference that is inherent in our minds, yet we fail to recognize it- the difference between our role models and our icon. Most of us have both-that I am sure-yet we can’t differentiate as to why we call one as our role model and the other as our icon. The picturisation of this song shows the difference. I am sure most of us, in the score years that we are on this earth, have witnessed the performance of a rock band on yanky channels like channel V or M tv, at the same time most of use have accidentally (or non-accidentally) have the pleasure of listening to classical compositions (hindi or English or whichever language- as for me I am not fortunate enough to lend my ears to classical music of any other languages). If you have observed the difference, you would have see that the artiste in classical concerts never invites the audience to join with him. Maximum participation on the audience s’ part in such concerts is to supply chits with their requests written in-that’s it. And the artiste sings the requests to his perfection- this is whom a musician would look upon as a role model, the person whose achievements we look upon to as the milestones in our lives, but can we really relate to this person-whom we have so duly labeled as our role model-can we match his subtlety, perfection etc, but that is what we try to achieve through out our life, and when we do achieve it we realize how much individuality we have lost in the process.

But in a rock band’s performance- the band members invite and entice the audience to sing, to dance, to groove along with them-that’s why it does’nt really matter as to what they are singing, or are they missing notes while singing- because it does’nt really matter as long as the audience is enjoying. This is what we call an ICON- the person who lives the dream with you, you encourages you to dream big, wild and unrealistic, who sets you free and that is what our bollywood heroes do to us- they completely sweep us off our feet to the fantasy land where everything ends in the same climax- living happily ever after……. But how many real life stories end in that climax, well the number can be perfectly counted on our finger tips, yet we watch them, love them, and somewhat believe in the stories they tell and they on the other hand, show exactly what the person on the other side of the screen wants to see- saccharine sweet families, heroes who are successful in all spheres of life, beautiful ladies with chisel-shaped bodies and glowing skin and lots of attitudes. It’s good to see these screenshots of dreamland reveries because if we don’t see them how can we remember what we have set on to achieve in our lifetime.

But do we all remember what we wanted to achieve or we intentionally try to forget as we eventually realize that those achievements are not circumstantially not feasible, as I slowed down my bike across a small poodle where I happened to notice a big snail crawling at its supersonic speed leaving a perfect blue trail on a huge leaf, I remembered the days when I wished to become a sketching artist. How I wished to put down nature and sky-scrappers in pencil and paper. Today when I think of those dreams I cant help smiling to myself. But that is how life is-it ends up making you the obvious monotonous being that you had labeled as bore and out-dated in your school days-but all of us can’t end up being the “in” thing-can we?

All these show the greatest paradoxes of life that we live with-we end up becoming someone whom we have hated at the horizon of our adolescent consciousness.

“Hey you, watch your speed and the pot holes otherwise you will end up below a truck’s tyres”- damn it-who asked this fat old bum, what sorrows is my accident going to stir up in her life that she has to shout after me like that. But people have this general tendency to boss others around-tell them what is good and what’s not-that’s what the whole lot of art connoisseurs are doing for ages. They are selecting the best artistes, artists etc etc etc , but how they do it, is really difficult to follow. I wonder why actually they do it, I mean, aren’t we grown up enough to know which art forms are good or what we should like and what we should consider shit-do we need another asshole other than our own self to point that to us-what I like might be an object of utter dislike for another person-then how can a bunch of hippies decide it for us –as to who is best and who is worst-but that is how it is-nowadays-in reality shows they have invented an ingenious way to do it-by public voting, but by doing this you are actually leaving out the choice of those who have voted in favour of the person who actually loses the competition-but this is what we call “democracy”, and this is what Miss Mamta Banerjee is liberally using in calling a state wide bandh every other day, obviously she doesn’t respect the decisions of lakhs of citizens who are willing to work on that day-but it doesn’t really matter much.

So its best to just forget the muck that is happening all around and enjoy the scenery, this song makes it all the more intoxicating, the lyrics is also somewhat relative- laundry bill, unfinished novel both of these bug you till you finish or clear them off and ladki ka phone number is something that is treasured , as for important papers are concerned, I don’t think I possess any in my careless lifestyle, but good things never last long…….

Grrrr…………thrushhhhhhhhhh……

There goes the tyre of the bike- magnanimously changing its state to puncture. The drizzle has graduated to a downpour and is giving me the actual hint of the real world I inhabit in.

Anyways friends, sometimes its necessary to be in the fantasyland for a while, otherwise this world will be devoid of all the creative insights.

P.S. : Don’t ask me why I wrote this and please don’t point out grammatical errors, I know there are many.