Stalking Frownys Vs Bright Minds

My school-going sister needed to collect her textbooks for her upcoming academic year.She would be entering the eighth grade. A grade which I would never forget because it was a grade that left me with  a massive number of memories. Memories of fun, and purely fun. I had fun playing, dancing, studying, participating in events; I had fun during exams and picnics....

So my sister  needed entertaining company (obviously me, duh!) amidst the boredom of new textbooks, new syllabus sheets,  new unnecessary fears of new frowned faces of teachers.

My sister's face glowed. The glow was due to the sweat; she had been playing with her friends over/below desks until a frown faced teacher entered the class.

'You need to study at least 9 hours in a day from now, or you will fail in 10th class' blurted Frowny, let's just address her as that. I noticed sparks of nervousness appearing on my sister's glowing face.

Thinking back of when I was in the eighth, we weren't told we had to study to avoid failure. We were told we could study if we wanted to learn and explore life.

ME (in my sarcastic mind): yea, really... maybe they should even give up on bathing... it wastes time!

FROWNY (to all of us): Parents, even if your lazy children bathe on alternate days, it is fine; but they have to study daily. 

Thinking back of when I was in the eighth, we weren't told we were lazy. We were told we were highly responsible and capable of achieving immense feat in whatever we pursued. 

No wonder I felt claustrophobic in that classroom. Some not-so-pleasing odours seemed to sway. Oh, and in my time, we had pleasing fragrances in classrooms. 

'One smile doesn't cost, Frowny. If nothing else, it will only make you look good' my mind spoke to itself.

Thinking back of when I was in the eighth, we had teachers filled with energy, optimism, humour and their smiles helped us not to fall asleep when we read about one of the many battles in Panipat. 

'You kids are full time on your phone or laptops. You should read relevant things. Okay, Chetan, tell me who is India's P.M?' asked Frowny in a dominating tone.

Chetan, a chubby soon-to-be eight grader, and a victim of Frowny had a look which clearly said 'and you really think I don't know the answer to that?' 

Chetan replied with great confidence 'Miss, why do teachers always ask us such questions. We are always underrated. Why isn't an adult ever asked such a question?'

Frowny was quite pissed. Her ego had been hurt. How could any student (whom she thought doesn't know who India's PM is) ask her anything like that...

'I know that all adults in this room will know that answer, Chetan.' she said as she banged a stack of textbooks on the table.

'Come you pests, and take your textbooks.'  Frowny had to go to some other class to hopefully feed her ego there.

We all began to disperse. I looked at Chetan. He and my sister were discussing about a new invention; another classmate joined in and announced the new chess move he had learned from his uncle.The others pestered him to share it with them. Naomi, my sister's best friend,  dragged her to one corner to show her the candle she had made for her grandma. 

I saw bright minds. Each of them was bustling with ambition. Each of them wanted to learn. Each of them had a dream for India. 

It was unfortunate to see people like Frowny acting as a mentor to these bright minds, constantly demotivating them and telling them they weren't bright. But deep within I knew, these bright minds wouldn't be overhauled by Frownys in their journey. They knew well whom and what they had to look upto. 

While walking out, I decided to stalk and test Frowny's concept of 'all adults knowing who India's PM is'. I went upto a parent who was busy gossiping with a few other aunties about a soap. 

'You look so much like our PM's wife!' I exclaimed with joy.

She instantly replied 'Aree.. but I thought Abdul Kalam was not married.' This lady had clearly been a sincere student of some Frowny.

I didn't know who was at fault  for demotivating bright minds and trying their best to turn them into horse-blinkered empty vessels.Was it the Frownys of our society who tried their best to demotivate bright minds? Or was it  the not-so-charismatic PM of ours? Or was it just the fault of bright minds because they were bright?

I joined my sister and her friends, and learned about the new invention they were talking about - a robotic mechanism that could heal a particular disease. 

They very well knew whom and what they had to look upto. 

Let the Frownys keep coming. These minds aren't giving up their brightness. 

 

Stalking thoughts; fearlessly, freely

Restless, furious, ghastly entities!

The first emotions these words bring to our minds: fear, avoidance, dislike, disgust.

But let’s think tangently, let’s keep all our conditioned thinking aside, let’s think damn freely.

An entity that is restless, furious and ghastly can fill our eternally stirring souls with peace. Sit beside such a river, waterfall or dance to head banging music. You will feel serenity. It’s quite miraculous how restlessness can lead to serenity, how fierceness can bring calmness.

Similarly, we need to think freely to bring out the best in us. Don’t believe me? Well, that is upto you. But what wonders can thinking in the same monotonous way do?

“But I just spent 400 bucks… rather wasted 400,” Dippy told me frantically. I finally met her, after having to have waited for her on a road we considered ‘peaceful’ for more than 30 minutes. We were fascinated by the concept of inner peace from the film Kungfu Panda, and were in search of it. Sounds stupid? Let it sound that way.

“It wasn’t your fault, Dips. The auto you were in was stranded in traffic. The meter rose” I tried consoling her.

“Rose quite rapidly.” She responded furiously. She was collecting money to buy a new camera. Every single rupee was highly precious to her. It’s rare to see such people these days who value literally every single rupee; but when you do encounter Dippys in life, you do feel inspired and learn so much.

“Maybe you should earn it back.” I couldn’t think of anything to say. This was what came out from my vocal chords.

“Hell yes, and I’m earning it back in the next half an hour.”

She had formed a pact. The goal had to be met in the next half an hour. She usually, almost always till date, would carry out her said task. She wouldn’t accept delays; and I’m sure she wouldn’t even take them well.

We two stood on some random road; two to three people passed at a frequency of thirty minutes on that road. A car or an auto made special appearances on special occasions. Our resources were Dippy’s empty wallet, my wallet housing 50 rupees with a whole lot of tissue papers. Clean ones! Now, we needed to think, almost instantly, of a business model that would give us a turnover of rupees 400, on an average, per 30 minutes.

Selling something concrete was the most conventional idea. Few empty packets of Lays and Parle G lied on the road. We couldn’t sell those for obvious reasons. Thankfully that day, there was nothing there or nothing that we had carried that we could sell, or we would think conventionally eternally until we merrily turned hundred.

Conning people didn’t hold a chance. Dude, we are highly ethical people! The only time when we lose our ethics is when we push the other one standing infront of the AC, doping in all the cool air at a time when the city turns into an oven.

So coming back to the situation we were in. I stalked our talents to evaluate what could aide us now. She had great engineering knowledge which wouldn’t work now. I made great unburnt bread which wasn’t really feasible now. Both of us sang like frogs, danced like zombies and mimicked like pirated DVDs. This was all we could use now.

“We should” said Dippy.

“Everyone has heard melodious singing, witnessed mind boggling dancing and heard jaw dropping mimicry. Let’s give people something new.” she added with great enthusiasm.

Two people were passing; we didn’t know when the next lot of humans capable of giving us money would pass. We had to do it now. I, thankfully, didn’t have much time to think conventionally. Thankfully, I didn’t have enough time to ponder about making a fool of myself.

I sang; I mean I croaked. Dippy danced, it looked more like a rundown car trying to start its rusted engine. The two people held an expression which said they would run away right then and swear not to come back onto that road even if the spaceship that could save humanity from the end of the world stood there. They did as we forecasted. They screamed on the top of their lungs and liver, cried and ran away.

I and Dippy felt good as well as guilty. We felt good as we had atleast applied our free thinking. We felt guilty of scaring away the people.

A group of around 10 people suddenly came onto that road. This herd included the two people we had just frightened. Had they bought their friends to beat us up or arrest us for creating fear?

Their eyeballs searched… for us. Their radar caught us. 

The two people said “Once more, for them”, pointing to the herd. 

“You got to watch them”, the two laughed and told the rest of the group. We realised that what we thought was their ‘cry’ when they ran away a few minutes ago was actually their ‘laugh’. Yes, some people have this laugh which sounds like a cry. Variety.

Dippy showed me the time on the watch. We just had 4 minutes before we could pocket the said rupees 400 as per our set goal.

Thankfully, it again didn’t give me time to think conventionally. It’s funny but true; when we have less time to think we take the best decisions.

 I thought to myself “What the hell!!!”

I croaked again and Dippy made those rundown car moves.

“That’s great talent I’ve seen” said one of them, who was an action director.

They left. Dippy waved to them with a rupees 500 note in her hand.

Making roughly 500 per half an hour can amount to a turnover of 8000 per day, which can amount to roughly 2 lakhs plus per month. Our fearless free thinking did create a good business model.

SRK - a better leader than Rahul Gandhi!

The recent comment on my previous post by Smruti got me thinking.
' hey decent stalker... Do you think SRK can be a good leader for India? or how about Rahul Gandhi?'

@Smruti and all others, so here is my next post. This one's not only the voice of The Decent Stalker but I'm sure it's the enthusiastic, energetic and zealous voice of billions of other Indian youngsters. The title of my post is a clear and bold reply to your query. Let me add on the voice of Young India to it; SRK may not be a member of the Parliament and may not also want to be a part of it till eternity. Fair enough! The same goes for many of us; we wouldn't want to get into politics. What matters is how we make our own little effort to benefit the people of this nation, how we inspire other people to work towards the benefit of this nation and how we lead our future generations (even if we don't have out butts stuck onto the power seat).

Each of us has a dream. Yes sure we want it to benefit us (no one wants 'not to have money') but it will surely benefit  people around us and India on the whole. Be it in the field of business or entertainment or spirituality. We need inspiration.  We need motivation. We need role models. We don't care if our role models smoke or drink. We don't care if our role models are covered in white or wear torn jeans displaying skin. We don't care if they are old or young. All we need is dynamic role- models who motivate and inspire us. Considering the above factors of being able to inspire, act as a role model and provide a tiny bit of motivation, SRK already seems a bigger and better leader than Rahul Gandhi.

We aren't sitting in that 'seat of power'. We don't have the power wherein one phone call made to some authority can kill a rapist. We do hope that people having conquered this seat of power (and seem least interested to give others a chance) make that one phone call. But Alas, we instead  see hoards of crores pumped into 'some form of humans' who just raped one of our people. We also see people who don't hold that seat of power, someone like SRK and Farhan Akhtar trying to get some sense into society through the MARD (Men Against Rape and Discrimination) campaign. Once again let me remind you we (including celebs), don't hold that power wherein we can enter Tihar/ Arthur Road jail and ensure justice. We don't have mummyjis who rule India, nor do we have family friends who are Prime Ministers, so we can't even put in a word to our mummy or family friends to use their power to ensure justice.

We end up doing something like holding a protest outside Rashtrapati Bhavan wherein the owners refuse to even come out, and prefer being seated on plush sofas. We launch a campaign. We try pumping some sense into the people. We promote humanity. We remain sensitive to all communities, races and genders through all our acts and words. We ensure that no person loses hope in our beautiful country.

 We don't play the blame game. We don't end up giving speeches which support/ defame a particular community, race or gender. We don't mock.

We are highly tired of speeches and words. We don't have reason to care about the number of seats the UPA has gained or lost. We don't see any reason to care if Rahul has gone to Trinity College and obtained a distinction. NUMBERS aren't going to help the farmer who doesn't have a single light bulb in his home. NUMBERS aren't going to help the man who is striving to collect money for his daughter's education. NUMBERS aren't going to help the family who lost their son in 'one of the recent' blasts. Yet we don't lose hope in our beautiful country because we see somebody like SRK adopting five villages to provide them electricity,  funding the education of kids of people who work for him, creating the children's ward at a Hospital or putting in his money for relief funds to help people who have been victims of natural calamities. We see somebody getting up from that plush sofa and telling us humanity still exists.

So if a person who doesn't hold that seat of power and still can motivate and inspire us, I am sure he can be the best leader! There is someone that continues to instill hope. There is someone who motivates us to act. There is someone who inspires up to work towards betterment.

P.S: All I know is that if SRK contests elections, he is acquiring a hell lot of votes. And that's going to be a big blow to all the power imbibed so-called leaders :P What a scene. #Epic.

Let each one of us do our bit for this beautiful country. Cheers!

Love Decent Stalker











. 

Whom to stalk in IPL?

Hooting. Howling. Hat-trick.
I watched the repeat telecast of last evening's match. Today's match was about to begin in the next hour.
I turned the volume down when my friend gave me a ring 'I'll enter the stadium in about 20 minutes. Whom do I stalk?', she asked frantically.
Usually before an IPL match and all the excitement - by default - embedded within it starts,  most sapiens who have gone to see it ask;
'Hey, you have the camera, no?'
 'Hey honey, do you need popcorn now? I'm not getting it in the middle of the match!'
'My eye makeup is alright, no? There are cameras placing people's thopras on the big screen the entire time.'
'Soo soo kiya?'
'Whom do I stalk?' isn't a cliched, conventional or expected question to be asked before an IPL match.

'Stalk the match, silly.' I promptly replied.

'It's going to be crazy. There are match players, celebrities in the V.I.P boxes, I really don't know whom to keep my eyes on. It is like that one incident at a party, a host offered me a tray full of chocolates, there was milk,there was silk, there was guilt, there was dark, there was one with a silver mark; amidst all the guilt I was still deciding which one to choose.' she narrated like a hungry buzzing bee waiting to sting to calm itself.

'So which one did you finally pick?' I asked her.

'All' she said.

'All? You're a greedy guest.' I chuckled.

'All, in my day dream. None, in reality. The host had moved on with her treasure to the other guest who was relishing the one with the silver mark.' she said with a tone of despair. 'I don't want to end up in a similar scene today. I'm going to keep my eyes on only one person. But I don't know whom. I love all.' she added melodramatically.

Before I could talk 'Oh crap, I'm a minute away from entering. I still haven't made up my mind.' She hung up; I thought so or probably the bad signal disconnected the line.

My hyperly-over-hyper friend needed an answer, or she wouldn't be able to enjoy today's match. She had slogged for the tickets. Not to forget 'sleeplessness', 'faking excuses at work', 'screaming' garnished with 'bribing'. I would never utilize all the mentioned '....' to obtain one single piece of paper.

I called her, she wouldn't answer. 15 seconds later her text graced my phone.

'In security check. Plz text me whom to stalk.'

'You have already finished stalking. Now treat yourself by enjoying yourself.' I replied.

'Finished? Treat?' came her prompt text.

'You already stalked your aim to obtain that ticket.' I wrote back.

'You're right. It's done. The fat lady just tore it too. I'm off to enjoy the match' came her calm text.

Stalking K

‘K’ – it bags all the privilege in the film & television industry. Call it astrology, pseudopsychology, sheer luck or mere coincidence, the letter K is auspicious for its beholders. The K serials are money minters, the people born with the K surname do hold higher brownie points for future stardom than the non-K holders, the people having had their surname changed to something from the premier K  list have earned their share of fame, awards and money from the industry.  These are facts, stated as well as observed. 

‘So are you telling me a letter can actually contribute a certain percentage to success?’ I asked one of the stars who was born with the K surname, who also coincidentally is a good friend. I’ll address him as K for now. 

‘It’s more about convincing your mind’ K told me. ‘Once your mind knows it’s a part of the K – Gang, it does feel accepted; even be it solely a connection or similarity of the surname.’ 

‘So once the mind feels accepted, it would work better towards the goal, right?’ I asked K.

‘It’s like all the ingredients are in the bowl, now you just need to make a good dish out of it.’ K told me as his phone rang. He had to leave. 

 How could a single letter motivate somebody so much towards success? After all it is said what's in a name? (I say, A LOT! But what's in a surname?) I wanted to understand more of this. I decided to go and meet an astrologer who helps K with the naming and mahurats of the films he works in. 

I finally got an appointment after a fortnight. With a lighter pocket, I asked the astrologer ‘How does the letter K contribute to the success of people in the film and television business?'

He opened his orange booklet and pointed at few geometrical figures embedded with text. ‘The planets support the letter K, and deem it as most auspicious for the people in this line.’ He told me with a smile on his face.

‘What happens to remaining twenty-five letters?’ I asked him. He removed a massive red box file. He flipped through a few pages before he continued

‘In business, it’s A, H, B.

W, K, R and J get its footage in real estate.

M, W for educational institutions.

But it is subject to change depending on various traits of the individual.’

 Here I had two viewpoints about the letter K; the astrological one and the one sans the ‘astro’ element , the logical one. I had to pick one to answer my query. You know how unanswered queries can literally haunt you and make you go restless as if a mosquito has pinged you.

I once again thought about both the viewpoints. I was stalking every word said by both – the astro and the logic. I was recollecting. I needed an answer. I decided to text K to know more about this letter game. The reply helped me place the full stop.

‘I would have been a star even if my surname didn’t bear the initial K. 

But the guy who changed his surname to bear an initial K few years back,

 is also a great star today.

Goodnight

K’

So yeah, I got my answer;

‘a letter can actually contribute a certain percentage to success, if you think it can…’

It’s not a letter game, but a hardworking mind game.

Stalking The Mind

The sun set, like it always did. The crowd enlarged; there were all sizes, types, shapes and personalities. The promenade resembled a mini version of the Kumbhmela. The only difference was that here people wore clothes.

With the purpose to 'chill', I and my friend decided to laze around on the promenade and add a bit of 'value' to our chilling spree. (It actually was really hot! And just to disgust you, the sweat flowing generously from the crowd did make it stinky). So here we were, two humans with great knowledge of psychology (dude, I topped the finals and you didn't), decided to put psychology into practice.

We randomly picked up the concept of 'mind control'.

'So wanna try it?' my friend asked me as she frisked her pocket for the Oreo cookies. None were to be found. The morsels were. Gobbled Instantly. (Yes, we do keep biscuits in our pockets, that too the yummy chocolatey ones. Too bad, if you're feeling tempted or disgusted. Go get your own pack!)

We decided to experiment with a theory; not exactly sure about what it preaches, so we made up part of it or rather completely modified it. Tell me who doesn't these days?

We needed to stare at some sweating person SITTING on the promenade. Then we needed to talk something in our mind like 'Look at me' or better still 'Come and give me a Rs.1000 note.' We needed  to BELIEVE that the person would listen to our command. We needed to BELIEVE that the person's mind would receive the message and act upon it. Hopefully more than act - more than Rs. 1000.

Gazing. staring. Glancing...

We began searching for our target. Everyone just seemed the same - sane, sweaty and visibly a part of the crowd. We needed a person we could remember forever. The person had to be worthy of our newly formed mind control theory.

Gazing. staring. Glancing...

A robe. Pyjamas. Loose.
Dusty hairdo. His hair were longer than mine.
Props - broom.
Accesories - way too many.
Gait - not sure what to call it - walk, jump, switch path, twirl.
Verbal utterances - mantras and sounds 'Lola Hola'.
A Sadhu claiming to know magical. mantras, probably a shy one who couldn't participate in the Kumbhmela, or maybe sent back from Spain.

This one looked like an interesting person (if he believed to be one; I mean these guys do think they are above people. How cool, we have atleast somebody whose worse than us.) to apply mind control upon. He walked in his different fashion. We stalked him. We needed him to sit so we could focus on him. A few moments later, he sat. We positioned ourselves opposite him. He stared at a dog who was lying there and hit his broom on his back. The dog barked and ran way.

We, the eternal dog lovers, turned more keen to make this Sadhu pay.
We began. Our minds chanted to his, 'Apologise to the Dog'. We didnt know how long it was before we still chanted 'Apologise to the Dog'.

He got up and began walking. We stalked him. Was he going to apologise to the dog, who now sat near the kiddie playing spot?

He arrived near the dog. He held his broom firmer than before and raised it.

He cried. He apologised. He walked away.

I and my friend had to rejoice, right? After all, our mind-boggling experiment had worked.
We felt too clean, our hair felt too neat, our clothes felt too tight, we felt highly sane. It felt our mind was still stalking his. We instruted ours to stop stalking his. We felt clean, neat and sane again. But I'm not sure what the kids around us thought when we burst into laughter for the next ten minutes..

Nor did we care...

Vocals by SRK

Watching the opening of the Filmfare awards for the second time when aired just a couple of days back, a song sung by SRK began with lights, cameras and dance.
'Vocals by SRK, eh?'; went the jealous mongers again. This one little comment made me ponder and resort to Google for R&D.

'Singing' as sweet the word itself may sound is actually one of the most dreaded acts for most people. Imagine yourself relaxing in a room filled with your family and friends, and you are suddenly tapped on your back when pin drop silence floods the room; 'sing something for us', request the F & F's (Family and Friends). Most people did say they would just stare at the floor, blush, praying that they were spared. Some in turn asked the person placing the not-very-welcomed request to sing instead; 'You are a better singer any day. Let us all hear it from you'. This very person too rejects 9 out of 10 times.

So this very act of singing, which might seem so melodious when a master of singing sings, it does make many sound like toads croaking in embarrassment, it does make many sweat and stumble, and yes it does activate the hormone activated when the body senses threat or fear.

On the other hand, there are people who do anything and make that anything look good. So it's not the 'thing' that enhances their appeal, but they make the thing look beautiful. SRK is one such person. I'm sure not every non-singer can be aired on national television as he sings.