F : Foolishness in Lockdown #AtoZChallenge2020

I was in a mood for an adventure on Sunday, which just went by. So I decided to get out of my house after a week or so in this lockdown situation, to buy groceries and vegetables. I ventured out of my house fully armored to face the invisible enemy, that has caused this curfew like situation. I had covered my face properly with a home-made mask, (made out of my handkerchief) and had kept a 50 ml, alcohol based sanitizer in my pocket. My kit was fully loaded, which will make any good soldier proud of me. It included cloth bags, a properly disinfected wallet, with a credit card inside, my mobile phone and a to-buy items list. Things were totally sorted. 

As I walked about 200 meters towards the grocery store from my building, I felt an adrenaline rush like never before. The grocery store had done enough preparation for social distancing and was allowing limited people inside, at a time. So I had allies in my fight against this C enemy. As I started filling items in my cart, I realized that even shelves in the store were practicing social distancing. Half the shelves in the store were empty. So I bought the items which were on my list and also available in the store. I was able to buy half the items only. I was still upbeat, because something is better than nothing. I also bought few cookies and a sliced cake for my son (not in the list prepared by my wife), to compensate for the things I didn't get. I walked back home with the satisfaction of a great adventure. 

But a good soldier's job is to ensure safety till the end. Upon reaching home, all the items were kept aside for disinfection outside the apartment door. I immediately took a shower and changed into fresh clothes. Now I was in a position to have a peaceful day. In the evening, when disinfected stuff was being moved inside the house, my wife informed me that it seems I carried the week old list of items along with me. Half of that stuff was ordered online by yours truly few days back. Of course, I had forgotten this fact. So now, I will be eating bottle gourd in its various avatars till next Sunday - vegetables, fritters, koftas and may be halwa. And I hate bottle gourd. We will cook french beans twice this week. And I will be served onions with everything. Clearly, for displaying foolishness in lockdown, one has to pay the price and deal with a wife who is definitely not amused with your adventure.

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My theme for this year's #AtoZchallenge is Lock-down Blues. I intend to write and talk about how I deal with it, what it inspires me to read or watch or any aspect of it which fascinates me. You can read the theme reveal post here. 

Previous Challenges : Letter F

2017: Fish in the Pond

2018: FREE SPIRIT - Why do I write?

2019: Food in Hindi Films / Bollywood

F : Food in Hindi Films / Bollywood #AtoZChallenge 2019

There are very few Hindi films that celebrate food in the truest sense. Stanley Ka Dabba (Stanley's Tiffinbox) really romances the food. It juxtaposes a child's hunger with the most delicious food to a devastating effect.  Lunchbox was another film where food builds bond between two strangers. Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana though didn't show food the way such a film should, it really took me down the food lanes from the past. 

But let me not disappoint you. My challenge is to write about cliches in Bollywood. Here I will have to introduce Chekhov's Law. It states that ‘If in Act I (of any script or book or movie) you have a pistol hanging on the wall, then it must fire in the last act’ . The same is true for food in Hindi films. With a slight twist though. If food appears in a scene in a Hindi film, especially if there is a cake, there has to be a food fight soon after. This cliched scene has been used in several movies in past to mine some laughs from the gullible audience. 

But the following scene turns Chekhov's Law on its head. It has a gun and a food item (an Indian flatbread) playing a really important role. Please note this scene is meant to be an intense and emotional one. But when I see it today and without context of the whole film, it comes across as extremely hilarious and stupid. In this film, Izzatdaar (honorable) one of the protagonists doesn't fire the gun, because the other protagonist uses the flatbread as a shield. It is used as a metaphor for the mother's love, as the gun wielding protagonist has a strange emotional connect with that flatbread. 

Another Bollywood cliche related to food that I can recall is about the fight scenes that occur when hero is about to eat or already eating food. In these scenes the hero has to tackle the goons without letting the food fall down. Or he has to continue eating food oblivious to these goons and still beating them somehow with actions that are part of his food eating routine. Like as he picks his glass to drink water, his elbow will move side-wards hitting the goon who is about to attack him from that side. Of course it is not choreographed ;-) But some films are so bad that they don't get it right. In the following scene, hero is about to eat a really ugly looking item of food. Goons Attack! Hero fights back! And takes a winning bite! But food does fall down at one point of time! Epic fail!

Thankfully, Bollywood has done away with this cliche. Today's heroes look so lean, I doubt they eat food at all. But Mark Twain has a word of advice for them. "The secret of success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside."

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My theme for this year's #AtoZchallenge is Hindi Film Industry / Bollywood cliches. You can read the theme reveal post here.

2017 Challenge Post from Letter F: Fish in the Pond - An anecdote from my past which ended well for me. Click here to read. 

2018 Challenge Post from Letter F: FREE SPIRIT - Why do I write? - It was a simple post about why I feel compelled to write. Click here to read. 

F : FREE SPIRIT - Why do I write? #AtoZchallenge

Everyone has a set of unfulfilled dreams. We work towards fulfilling some and we don't work on others. That's called prioritization, you would say. But then some dreams can't be put into any such category. 

I dream to be an author of a best-selling novel / book. But I have never worked towards it. So is it an unfulfilled dream? 

If I really get to core of the matter, it is writing that gives me happiness. And I have been writing for long. Some times in my personal diaries, and at times on blogs or notes on other mediums. 

Does that take me closer to fulfilling my dream? Not really. 

Will I ever earn money off my writing? Can't say. 

Am I really a good writer? Subjective.

But does writing make me feel good? Oh! Yeah.

I started this blog in 2005 and called it Free Spirit... Because that is how I feel about this space. This is one of the few things that are truly my own creation. It gives wings to my thoughts and every time I publish a new post, my spirits get lifted. I don't think some of the posts are even read by many. But just the completion of a post gives me a high. I also started another blog on my passion for movies later. I haven't updated that since long though. 

Let me put down list of things, which makes writing, such a pleasure for me. (There was an essay in Amish's Immortal India on the same subject, which inspired me to do this.)

1. I write, because I can - I believe, I have stories to tell and that's why I write.

2. I write, because it gives me a sense of completion - Most of things in life - in job and personal space - are without any closed loops. Things always remain in perpetual motion. Writing makes me feel accomplished that way. 

3. I write, because there are always multiple truthful versions of each incident and anecdote - There are so many life experiences where others are involved. Each one remembers those incidents from his / her vantage point. When I write about those experiences from my point of view, my versions become etched in history.

4. I write, because it helps me learn - When I write, I am forced to structure my random thoughts in a coherent manner. This improves my articulation. I get to learn new words and phrases. I research some times on varied subjects to write. Writing is a great learning tool.

5. I write, because I have a good imagination - When I write, I can create my own world. I create. I am the God in that world. 

6. I write, because I have a son - When my son grows up to be a young man, I will be old. My written stories will showcase my youth and he will have tough life-goals to match ;-)

7. I write, because I fear amnesia - I have a morbid fear of memory loss. I document happy and not so happy experiences of my life, so that if I ever lose memory, my stories are not lost.

8. I write, because they love it -  My ex-girlfriends, my wife and my mother all love(d) the fact that I write. Why do I even need other reasons to write?

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My last year's challenge post from letter F was about a booze induced incident titled Fish in the Pond. Read it here.

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My theme for this year's #AtoZchallenge is all about writing stories, anecdotes and observations from my life in form of easy to read listicles. You can read the theme reveal post here.

F : Fish in the Pond

This is an incident from my first sales and channel management job. I was six months into it and was getting increasingly frustrated that my seniors were treating me with kid gloves and not letting me handle the dealers where there were challenges or where you can prove your worth. I was being given areas, where business happened on auto-mode. That also reflected their lack of trust in my abilities.

After six months our boss changed. The new boss invited everyone for dinner party. When everyone got drunk, he started asking uncomfortable questions. He knew when one is drunk, one isn't politically correct. So when my turn came, he asked me what bothers me most. I don't remember the question verbatim. May be he asked something else and not what I mentioned above. But my response to whatever he asked was definitely clear. 

I told him that I am a big fish meant to swim in the sea, but I am being limited to a pond. I mentioned that I don't like to be a fish in the pond. My colleagues told me next day that I repeated this statement crazy number of times that night. On loop.

So when I was summoned to my boss' office next day, I knew that this is my last day at office. I was too brazen last night. He offered me two new markets to handle. Tough ones. I was out of his office after few minutes and the pond too.

Lessons Learnt:1.  Avoid drinking beyond a limit at office parties. 2. Always say your mind.